Russell Jones has been involved in the “War on Drugs” on various fronts for more than 40 years. For 10 of those years, Russell worked as a San Jose, California narcotics detective. Later he was assigned to a DEA-run task force. As a government intelligence agent, Russell worked in Latin America observing narcotics trafficking during the Nicaragua-Contra conflict. In academia, he conducted studies of the impact of drug abuse on the crime index, wrote training programs for identifying the psychological and physiological symptoms of narcotics use, and developed rehabilitation programs designed specifically for the court-mandated client. He has traveled throughout the former Soviet Union and China to study their drug problems and policies. In the field of drug rehabilitation, Russell implemented and taught courses for various California and Texas counties, as well as for privately run programs. Russell is a court-recognized expert (on both the federal and state levels) in the field of narcotics enforcement. His journey to the Soviet Union made it clear to Russell that the “War on Drugs” cannot be won. “Drugs were prevalent even behind the Iron Curtain,” he reports. “If a country, as controlling of its citizens as the Soviet Union was, still had such a large a problem – drug-dealing on Moscow street corners, meth labs in Leningrad – how could a free society such as ours handle the problem from a law-enforcement perspective?” Russell rightly attests that from the advent of drug prohibition in 1914 to the declaration of “War on Drugs” in 1970, to our present-day policies and tactics, the US government has not significantly reduced the use and abuse of drugs. Instead we have incarcerated millions, destroyed the lives of countless youths, while corrupting police, judges, and politicians. “We are taxing our population at over 69 billion dollars a year to support this ‘War on Drugs,'” he notes, “and the result is the enrichment of drug lords, foreign government officials, and our own government agencies that are involved in this folly.” Russell champions a three-pronged approach to reform: 1) treat addiction as a health problem – not a crime, 2) remove the profit motive from the drug trade, and 3) redirect a portion of the billions of dollars in enforcement costs that ending prohibition would save toward real, honest education about drugs. Education programs cut the use of nicotine, the most addictive drug known to humans, in half in a 20-year period and we didn’t have to arrest or imprison anyone to achieve that success.
Check out this video of one of Russell’s public speeches:
And check out Russell’s book:
there is a group of ex-law enforcement and attorneys/judges Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Here is a interesting 14 minute video that they explain why they are against the war on drugs
Filed under: General Problems
When I read the title for this article, I thought to myself that this person must surely be a member of LEAP. I joined a few years ago and gave a donation. Since then, I have continued to donate via Amazon Smile at:
https://smile.amazon.com/
The Amazon Smile website is exactly the same as Amazon.com; same merchandise, prices, shipping, etc. But, Amazon Smile lets one designate a charity/nonprofit for donations. These donations are made by Amazon (not by you), and are based on a percentage amount of the what you have spent shopping at the Amazon Smile web site. As noted above, I have selected LEAP [“Law Enforcement Action Partnership” which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit] for Amazon Smile to donate to based on the amount I spend shopping at their web site.
Note that LEAP changed its name a few years ago. The original name (“Law Enforcement Against Prohibition”) was changed to “Law Enforcement Action Partnership”.
I did see a date in the bottom left edge of the video of 1/18/2011, but noted that his chart about the “Heroin Price and Purity” (about 8m 50s into the video) stopped with the data presented at the year 1999. So, the video is a bit dated as you mention. But, your question, “is any of this relevant today?” is a resounding “Yes”.
The fact that the video presentation may have been done up to ~20 years ago doesn’t really matter, all the negative things that the speaker mentions regarding the War on Drugs (WOD) is still true today. Including the fact that the public, in this country, is apparently so stupid that they can’t grasp the idea that the WOD is now about 50 years old and that it is a failed policy. This has been apparent for many years. Funding the WOD is equivalent to dumping money into a black hole.
The only difference between then and now? Just take all those negative aspect of the WOD mentioned in the “old” video” and multiple them by a factor of 5 (or 10?). That is, things today are about 5-10 times worse that they were when this video was made. We spend billions of dollars now per year to fight this failed war, the personnel assigned to fight the WOD is still increasing, the sale of street drugs is increasing, etc. The WOD is responsible for police officers slowly evolving into being racists and adopting brutal tactics such as choke holds The WOD is used as an excuse by law enforcement to justify such things as “No Knock” entry into homes, to obtain search warrants based on little evidence from judges over the telephone who have never even read the warrant, raiding doctors offices using swat teams, combat gear, and military style rifles, to racially profile minority groups as being “heavy drug users”.
The government argues that through “prohibition” it is regulating the illegal drugs in this country. That is nothing but BS. The government absolutely cannot regulate the illegal drug market, they cannot limit sales, they cannot collect taxes. Regulation is currently being done by drug dealers and cartels.
Yes, the video is as relevant today as when it was created and published on YouTube. Also note, LEAP is still very active and provides “Expert” speakers to talk to the public and inform them of the failed WOD and why it should be ended.
Steve I always appreciate when you bring out the “truth” about this “war on drugs” Now these guys to me are true “experts” Compared to that maggot fraudster Kolodny (?) But somehow he got away with being called an “expert witness!”
Anyway is any of this relevant today? Im no “expert” but video looks 20,30 40 years old. Has anyone from the DEA broken rank to continue to show the corruption on this scam?
If so,we sure could use there knowledge from “today” to show how this “crisis” is nothing more than a money making machine for the corrupt in D.C.