3/21/95
This afternoon (Tuesday 3/21) from 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio will have a panel of "drug warriors", including Herbert Kleber of Columbia University's Center on Alcohol and Substance Abuse (forced-treatment advocate) and Donald Ian McDonald, an official with the Reagan administration (Just Say No).
The call-in number for the show is (800) 989-8255. If enough anti- prohibitionists call it, maybe one of us will get through!
Some ideas for what to bring up:
- Bush spent over $100 billion on the Drug War, and when the '92 campaign came around, he didn't talk about it, because it had failed. Why should we expect the Drug War to get better results now than it has in the past?
- We've been fighting the Drug War for 80 years (Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914), and we've gotten devastating violence associated with the illegal drug trade, and more and more potent forms of the drugs we're trying to control (e.g., crack). Why should we expect it to turn out any differently during the next 80 years?
- The homicide rate plummetted during the years immediately following the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Wouldn't repealing drug prohibition dramatically reduce violence -- particularly gun violence by teenagers? (And if they talk about violence being caused by drug use and therefore rising with legalization, cite the 1990 Department of Justice study that determined that drug use does not have a strong relationship with violence, except for use of the drug alcohol.
- Call for an open, comprehensive airing of the evidence and study of alternatives to today's failed policies.
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