{"id":1157,"date":"2012-01-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/just-as-prohibition-of-alcohol-failed-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-richard-branson.html"},"modified":"2012-01-24T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T13:00:00","slug":"just-as-prohibition-of-alcohol-failed-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-richard-branson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/just-as-prohibition-of-alcohol-failed-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-richard-branson.html","title":{"rendered":"Just as prohibition of alcohol failed… the war on drugs has failed —Richard Branson"},"content":{"rendered":"Richard Branson wrote for the Telegraph yesterday,\n\nIt’s time to end the failed war on drugs<\/a>\n
\n\n<\/a>\nJust as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the\n1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years,\nmore than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all\nwe have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails,\nbillions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and\nthriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.\n

\nToo many of our leaders worldwide are ignoring policy reforms that\ncould rapidly reduce violence and organised crime, cut down on\ntheft, improve public health and reduce the use of illicit drugs.\nThey are failing to act because the reforms that are needed centre\non decriminalising drug use and treating it as a health problem.\nThey are scared to take a stand that might seem “soft”.\n

\nBut exploring ways to decriminalise drugs is anything but soft. It\nwould free up crime-fighting resources to go after violent organised\ncrime, and get more people the help they need to get off drugs. It’s\ntime to get tough on misguided policies and end the war on drugs.\n<\/blockquote>\nBranson isn’t just a billionaire speaking his mind, he was also on the\n\nGlobal Commission on Drug Policy<\/a> that studied the problem\nand recommended last summer that we end prohibition.\n

\nBranson does bring his business experience to bear:\n\n\n

\nMany political leaders and public figures acknowledge privately\nthat repressive strategies have only made the drug problem worse. It\ntook 14 years for America’s leaders to repeal Prohibition. After 50\nyears of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find\nthe courage to speak out.\n

\nFor all the successes I’ve had in business, I’ve also learnt to\naccept when things go wrong, work out why, and try to find a better\nway. The war on drugs is a failed enterprise. We need to have the\ncourage to learn the lessons and move on.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/a>\nEnding the failed war on drugs would also help reduce the\nincarceration rate in the U.S.\nThe state of Georgia wants to make the problem worse by\nprivatize the prisons that are already mostly populated by collateral\ndamage from the drug war,\nproviding more profits to select private industry at the expense\nof the prisoners and of you, the taxpayers.\nAs private prison company CCA knows,\n\naccording to CCA’s 2010 report to the SEC:<\/a>\n

\n…any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal\nimmigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted,\nand sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional\nfacilities to house them.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo let’s stop building prisons and end drug prohibition.\n\nWe don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.<\/a>\nSpend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.\nFollow\n\nthis link<\/a>\nto petition the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Branson wrote for the Telegraph yesterday, It’s time to end the failed war on drugs Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,1113,14,15,19,72,20,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-cca","category-economy","category-education","category-history","category-incarceration","category-law","category-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-iF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}