When I heard today that 75 students at San Diego State University were arrested on drug charges, something didn't sound right. That's just a hell of a lot of people, and in light of the drug war's typically flimsy evidentiary standards, I leaned towards the assumption that more than half of them probably didn’t do a damned thing.
That may still be true, but after learning how reckless and cavalier these guys were, I'm less shocked by the outcome:
Um, had you ever heard of the drug war, you idiot? Why not advertise on Craigslist while you're at it.
Many will say they had it coming, but I sympathize nevertheless. The lure of the black market sucks these guys in like a whirlpool. It is precisely the sort of people who would behave this way that are drawn forcefully towards such activity, empowered by it, and ultimately destroyed by the state at tremendous expense to the taxpayer.
If someone responsible and accountable to the public were charged with distributing these substances to those determined to consume them, we wouldn't have conspicuous drug monopolies creating disorder on college campuses across America. We wouldn't have to pay for young people to be investigated and convicted, then sent away to a horrible place where taxpayers must buy their food and clothing and medical care and even fund their reintegration into society.
Look no further than the fact that college students are getting hauled out of college 75 at a time for drug violations to know that our drug policy isn't working at all.
That may still be true, but after learning how reckless and cavalier these guys were, I'm less shocked by the outcome:
"Undercover agents purchased cocaine from fraternity members and confirmed that a hierarchy existed for the purpose of selling drugs for money," the DEA said.
…
A member of Theta Chi sent out a mass text message to his "faithful customers" stating that he and his "associates" would be unable to sell cocaine while they were in Las Vegas over one weekend, according to the DEA. The text promoted a cocaine "sale" and listed the reduced prices. [AP]
Um, had you ever heard of the drug war, you idiot? Why not advertise on Craigslist while you're at it.
Many will say they had it coming, but I sympathize nevertheless. The lure of the black market sucks these guys in like a whirlpool. It is precisely the sort of people who would behave this way that are drawn forcefully towards such activity, empowered by it, and ultimately destroyed by the state at tremendous expense to the taxpayer.
If someone responsible and accountable to the public were charged with distributing these substances to those determined to consume them, we wouldn't have conspicuous drug monopolies creating disorder on college campuses across America. We wouldn't have to pay for young people to be investigated and convicted, then sent away to a horrible place where taxpayers must buy their food and clothing and medical care and even fund their reintegration into society.
Look no further than the fact that college students are getting hauled out of college 75 at a time for drug violations to know that our drug policy isn't working at all.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
One down, 2,473 to go.
One down, 2,473 to go.
Harm caused by Alcohol illustrates bogus drug war
The death of a SDSU student due to cocaine overdose helped ignite this massive investigation. When one considers that over 1,700 college students die on campus each year due to alcohol posioning it seems our drug policy has it's priorities backward. These deaths get little attention in the media and often the cause of death is attributed to something other than AOD like falling out of a building.
The alcohol industry has done a magnificent job of painting the picture that "DRUGS" are the big problem in society and that there's nothing more American than having a cold one.
I found it interesting that the President of SDSU was quoted as saying(CNN) that these student supsects were responsible for ruining hundreds of lives. He got that one backwards as well. What about his students who have been derailed from a professional career into a lengthy prison sentence. Sounds like those are the ones who lives have been ruined. And as far as the availbility of drugs at SDSU, this bust might have a lasting effect of say....two weeks. But you won't hear that story. The media rarely asks law enforcement what impact these huge drug busts have in the community. They report the same story over and over again without any critical analysis. When it's possible I E-mail the guilty reporter with a scathing commentary on this brand of lazy journalism. You should to!
Yes, I would want that
Yes, I would want that student who was looking for a professional career as my lawyer or doctor. Too bad, so sad. Zero sympathy of these folks. They got caught and now it's time to pay the piper. Of course, things like accountability and responsibility are not values we place a high priority on in this society. No, it's the government's fault, it's the police's fault, the policy is wrong, etc. Deal drugs and you get arrested, it's that simple.
Yes, it is that simple, but
Yes, it is that simple, but that doesn't make it good policy. Accountability and responsibility exist whether or not something is against the law. The fact that something is not illegal doesn't make it OK.
Public Relations Scheme?
Thanks to the drug bust of 75 students at SDSU, the DEA can no longer claim that it is restricting its enforcement priorities to major drug dealers and cartels. Not that busting medical marijuana dispensaries hasn’t already exposed the DEA’s lies about its priorities.
The fact that the students’ alleged cocaine dealing did not cross state lines, nor international boundaries, and that the DEA still felt it still had jurisdiction, is curious. Why weren’t the San Diego narcs involved?
Perhaps with public opinion souring on the drug war, the SDSU bust was simply one big public relations ploy conducted by the DEA.
The initiative for the DEA investigation was allegedly tied to the cocaine overdose death of a pretty, white SDSU coed; as if we haven’t seen this type of dead-white-girl hysteria played out before by the corporate media.
Of course, in a harm reduction society, the girl would have been taught in a middle-school harm reduction class how to use drugs safely, not to mix beer with wine, etc., and she would most likely not have died. But then she would not have become the martyr the drug warriors now favor to create the public emotional response that props up their failed prohibitionist drug policy—a policy that didn’t stop the girl from obtaining the coke in the first place.
Another factor for targeting college students is that a cultural schism exists between college students and DEA agents. DEA personnel are not required to possess a college degree (unlike FBI agents, which is one reason why the DEA was never successfully integrated into the FBI under Reagan’s urging or that of any other president).
As a result, what one finds in the DEA are a motley collection of sociopaths, authoritarians, racists, right-wing religious flakes, anti-individualists, anti-rationalists, anti-intellectuals, and plainly dimwitted people who hate “elites” (i.e., anyone who’s read a book in the last 12-months). Under normal circumstances, these types of cretins would never be given any authority over anyone. In that sense, the DEA’s busting of college students is a circumstance not unlike that of Hitler’s Brown Shirts, a group of uneducated Nazi street thugs who, prior to 1938 when the Jewish exterminations began, were given guns and uniforms and the legal authority to harass and rough-up Jews in German neighborhoods.
Giordano
well its not funny
but dea busts these kids .while another goverment agency ships it in cia .talk about making money all the way around .
Hilarious
Funny article and responses. Especially since drugs fund gangs (in which can cap your ass) and addiction, aswell as really f-ing up ones body.
PS: DEA requires a college degree, you idiot. DEA was never incorporated into the FBI because it is to large and does not deal with the same objectives.
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