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The Many Faces of Jack Cole

1964

1970

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The Drug War has been the single most

devastating, dysfunctional social policy since slavery.

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Who Uses and Sells Drugs?

Whites constitute 72% of all drug users in the US

Blacks constitute 13.5% of all drug

users in the US

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Who Gets Arrested?

37% of those arrested for drug

violations are Black

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Who Goes to Prison?

60% of those instate prisons for drug felonies are

Black

81% of federal drug offenders

are black

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Who Goes to Prison?

Blacks are now serving an average of six years,

while whites are serving only four years.

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Incarceration Rates in theUnited StatesWhite Males

943Per 100,000 population

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Incarceration Rate of Black MalesPer 100,000 population

South Africa - 1993 Under Apartheid 851

United States - 2008Under Prohibition 6,667

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How to Judge if Drug Policy Works

1. Drug prices increase2. Drug potency decreases3. Drug supply decreases

4. Drug use decreases5. Overdose deaths decrease6. Drug Prohibition murders

decrease

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Wholesale Cocaine Costs

60 %LESS

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Wholesale Heroin Costs

70 %LESS

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Drug purity increased from

1½ % in 1970 to

60 % today

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Drug seizures went from

Ounces in 1970 to

Tons today

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Drug seizures by 2002

Ten tons of Heroin

Twenty tons of Cocaine

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US Drug Users According to DEA

1965 = 4 millionTwo percent of that

population

Today = 112 million46 percent of

this population

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Heroin Overdose Rateper 100,000 users

1979 = 28 Deaths

2000 = 141 Deaths

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Money spent fighting the Drug War

1970 = $100 million

Today = $70 billion

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Yearly Arrests for Nonviolent Drug Offenses Increased From

415,000 in 1970to

1.9 million Today

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US Tax Dollars SpentProsecuting the War on Drugs

One Trillion

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Cumulative U.S. Drug Arrests 1970 to 2005

41 Million

Arrests

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Percent of population addicted--Nothing has changed--

1.3 % When drugs legal

1.3 % When drugs illegal

1.3 % After 40 year war

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Clearance Rates for Violent and Property Crimes

Unsolved40% of murders

60% of rapes & arsons75% of robberies

90% of home Burglaries

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1963 Police Credited With solving

91 % of MurdersToday

61 % of Murders

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30 Percent Fewer Solved

Murders

Chasing nonviolent Drug

Users

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No Longer Protect us from

VIOLENTPredators

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How Has Prohibition ChangedDrug Use in US Schools?

School children report it is easier to buy illegal drugs than it is to buy

beer or cigarettes

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International Trade in Illicit Drugs

Annually generates:

$500 billion

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Alternative Policy Solution

Remove the profit motive

continuously enhanced for 40 years by the

United States policy of a

WAR ON DRUGS

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End Prohibition

Legalize and Regulate All

Drugs

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Won’t legalization cause everyone to use drugs?National Zogby PollIf heroin and

cocain were made legal would you

try them?

Less than 6/10 of one percent

said Yes

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Won’t legalization cause everyone to use drugs?

In the Netherlands

Marijuana use by tenth graders28 %

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Marijuana use by tenth graders in the

United States

41 %

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Drug and Violence Indicators - US and the Netherlands -

Marijuana Use Lifetime prevalence

37% 17%USA Netherlands

Heroin UseLifetime prevalence

1.4% 0.4% USA Netherlands

Homicide rateper 100,000 population

5.6 1.5 USA Netherlands

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Decreased by 25%

drug use by 13 to 15 year olds

PortugalDecriminalized

all drugs for adults in 2001

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Decreased by 22%

drug use by 16 to 18 year olds

Portugal

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Decreased by 52%

Heroin overdose deaths

Portugal

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Decreased by 71%

HIV infections reported by drug

users

Portugal

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Results of treating heroin addiction with heroin

Crime was cut by 60%

AIDSand

HEPATITISdropped to the lowest of any countries in Europe

82 % DECLINEIN NEW

HEROIN USERS!

Not one Overdose Death

since 1994

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Does Education Work?

1985 United States

42% smoked tobacco

2003 United States

Only 17% smoked tobacco

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Albert Einstein on ProhibitionThe prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.

Albert Einstein

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Prohibition - When will we learn?

Members of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform pose for a photograph in 1932 (courtesy of the Hagly Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware).  We are having to relearn the same lesson today that they learned 69 years ago.

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Prohibition - When will we learn?

Members of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform pose for a photograph in 1932 (courtesy of the Hagly Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware).  We are having to relearn the same lesson today that they learned 69 years ago.

Save our ChildrenStampOut

Prohibition

Members of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform

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Save our Children

Stamp Out Prohibition

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