MARK KIRK OFFERS SUPERFICIAL INITIATIVES AND FEAR-BATING TO COMBAT ILLEGAL DRUGS; KALBFLEISCH FAVORS A SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY




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David Kalbfleisch 808-372-8027 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://www.electdave.org/



On Thursday, April 10th, Rep. Mark Kirk (IL-10) distributed an e-newsletter to his constituents asking, “Are drug gangs a homeland security danger?” and asking recipients if federal law enforcement agencies should receive funding to combat gangs at the local level. Green Party candidate David J. Kalbfleisch asserts that applying such a label to domestic criminals does little to combat illegal drugs and provides a pretext for suppressing civil liberties, particularly the 4th Amendment, in the same manner that the vague threat of terrorism has facilitated illegal domestic spying and the effective abolishment of habeas corpus.

“The number of drug dealers is infinite as long as people want drugs,” says Kalbfleisch. “Instead of dealing with symptoms, like gangs, we should enact a sensible drug policy that treats drug abuse as a health problem, rather than a crime, and improves people’s earning potential by redirecting money saved on incarcerating addicts towards education. Less poverty means less drugs.”

Most drug arrests are for possession, and most possession arrests are for marijuana. (1) Kalbfleisch contends that marijuana should be decriminalized and regulated like alcohol. He would also decriminalize the possession small amounts of any drug to focus solely on traffickers and manufacturers.

The majority of inmates in federal prisons are drug offenders, as are about a quarter of state inmates. (2) Of the approximately $12 billion our federal government spent on the War on Drugs in 2005, most of the money went towards, “disrupting the market.” Much less was for “stopping use,” and “healing users.” (3) This figure does not include money spent by non-federal governments on enforcement, money used to process people through our judicial system, or money used to house convicts. That would add many billions more to the total. Despite this enormous expenditure, drug abuse in the United States has conformed to no clear pattern and has not always declined as enforcement expenditures have increased. (4)

“Most people are not drug addicts even though illegal drugs are readily available everywhere, and filling up our prisons with people who should be in rehab is not a fiscally conservative use of federal money,” says Kalbfleisch, who cites the development of solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources as an excellent use of federal funds.


SOURCES
1) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/enforce.htm
2) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/correct.htm
3) http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/06budget/06budget.pdf,
pg. 5 of the pdf (not the page labeled #5)
4) http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/druguse/,
table 1