Pubdate: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 Source: Stephenville Empire-Tribune (TX) Copyright: 2005 Stephenville Empire-Tribune Contact: http://www.empiretribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3069 Author: Colleen McCool Note: Headline created by newshawk JUST SAY NO TO THE DRUG WAR We love our troops! They have been misled. Many churches back the war in Irag and most back the drug war. War is a tool governments use to make us more docile, more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources. I hope, local church leaders and the community will consider this information: The United States has about 500,000 non-violent drug offenders behind bars, more people than are imprisoned in the European Union for all offenses and they have 100 million more people. As of June 30, 2004, the U.S. incarceration rate was 726 per 100,000 residents. That is about 7 times the rate of imprisonment in Europe and Canada. Incarceration is far from equal along racial lines. The White incarceration rate was 393 per 100,000, Latino-957 and Black-2,531. Texas number of offenders supervised per 100,000 is 36.5% higher than the national average and 50% of those imprisoned for drug offenses are black, 42% Hispanic/other, while only 8% are white. It is a scandal, the racism, corruption and uncaring destruction of young lives to make a buck or feed an addiction to power. Politics and money is there a way to separate them? Our politicians have excelled at distorting reality for years. Big corporations control our government. Oil and finance back the Iraq war against their competitors, just as tobacco, pharmaceuticals, alcohol back the drug war against some drugs that might compete with them. Yet, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco account for almost a full quarter of all those who die each year in the US. Illicit drugs account for less than 1% of total deaths! No deaths attributed to marijuana. A smokescreen to take our eyes off the real killers who we tolerate! This is a lot bigger deal than sex in the oval office! The agenda is plainly: get rid of undesirables - minorities and those smart enough to think for themselves and blow the whistle on the big picture. They have shamed, destroyed families, locked up, even killed so many for a wiser health choice in a recreational drug. Daniel Rocha was shot in the back by Austin Texas police earlier this year! Witnesses say he was on the ground defenseless. Daniel smoked marijuana sometime in the last month before he died. Recently police seized 2 ounces of marijuana at the Sunrise Florida home of Anthony Diotaiuto after shooting him 10 times. A total of at least 43 Americans have been abducted in the last 12 months in Nuevo Laredo. Many in Enforcement have been hurt or killed. Shame on our system, it reeks! It is obvious our drug policies are more about corporate/physician profit than the well being of the individual. Look at the cost of our medical care compared to our neighbors in Canada and Mexico. Leaders responsible for the current senseless policy will have to answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. Look at a petition to the government to promote open discussion at: http://www.dpft.org/petition.htm COLEEN MCCOOL Stephenville - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)