The Drug War: An Industrial Policy in America
by Jay Lindberg revised 8/11/97

Introduction

If the rich control the levers of power in America, it is safe to assume they control the drug war agenda as well. This project addresses the drug war as an economic policy in America. A war against American citizens for profit. This project will address three aspects of the drug war on America. They are called The Drug War Economy, Prisons or Colleges, and the Hemp\ Marijuana Fact Sheet. All three of these articles are interlocking pieces of a much larger picture. That picture describes a world where the police state we create will enforce our third world economy.

THE DRUG WAR ECONOMY

All wars are based on economics and the first casualty of war is the truth. The drug war is no exception. Recent revelations suggest the CIA dumped cocaine in minority neighborhoods to finance Contra operations. Those revelations served to limit damage to the Clinton campaign for fighting an ineffective War on Drugs. Reality is far more corrupt than the media lead the public to believe. Here is a taste of reality.

Drug War Budgets: DEA and Drug War Research

Research in the 1980s shows cocaine consumption in the white neighborhoods, per individual,
exceeded cocaine consumption in minority communities. This made sense because whites had more money to spend on cocaine. Media hype suggesting the deliberate dumping of cocaine in minority neighborhoods fail to address government dumping of cocaine in white neighborhoods as well. Media hype also hides the fact the DEA promoted policies in minority neighborhoods that encouraged crack consumption . These policies were not promoted in the suburbs.

The DEA researched the impact of cracking down on powdered cocaine in the inner cities. This research was done by the intelligence division of the DEA's Atlanta office. Their conclusions were as follows: Powdered cocaine would be replaced with crack cocaine which is cheaper, more addictive, produces more violent behavior and would destroy the inner cities in this country. Their own conclusions were the harm reduction models in Europe were far more effective in treating cocaine addiction and far less destructive to the communities. The DEA manipulated the conclusions of their own researchers to promote maximum budget. The Crack Epidemic and the media hype that went with it , provided the funds that eliminated powdered cocaine in the inner cities. Crack replaced powdered cocaine in the inner cities.
The rest is history.

The Drug War Economy is the foundation for our emerging police state. The costs associated with the drug war also eliminated investments in legitimate industry that produces goods and services for domestic and foreign markets. This first appears to be an unintended side effect of the drug war. It's not. It's tied to the economic interests of the power structure of this country and the global economy. The drug war is about business, power, and control.

THE GLOBAL DRUG WAR ECONOMY

There is an economic model for the drug war economy. The Opium Wars between England and China last century. The results are as follows. British dumping of opium created a thriving black market that destabilized the legitimate economy, destroyed the integrity of its borders, created a thriving black market that destabilized the legitimate economy, destroyed the integrity of its borders, created a police state in an attempt to enforce prohibition, bankrupted the government, corrupted its citizens and increased opium consumption forty fold. The British destroyed their industrial competitor and consumed much of China's wealth in the process. The drug war is fulfilling a its intended role. The drug war is about business, power and control.

The Contra operation in Nicaragua approached two billion dollars a year. Congressional funding for that operation did not exceed a quarter of a billion dollars annually. Cocaine financed the difference. Cocaine revenues are used to to bypass Congressional oversight of covert activities. This means Congress had no funding involvement in the operation. (Congress uses funding as a way to keep tabs on government projects)

The government of Bolivia is another example of existing policies. Bolivia is under the sphere of influence of the power structure that controls this country as well. The World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) have given their approval to produce the Cocaine. Cocaine production employs 20% of the population. Bolivia exports three billion dollars worth of cocaine annually. The CIA then provides access to American and world markets for that cocaine. The governments of Panama, Mexico, and the former government of Haiti are well known beneficiaries and profit as middlemen for these projects. Cocaine dollars pay of debts to the World bank and IMF. Government control of these markets, through prohibition, also stabilize corrupt governments throughout South and Central America. The drug war now provides the ruse for military operations that enforce third world economies in the region.
Panama and Noreiga are examples of existing economic policy in the region. In less that six months after the kidnapping of Noreiga in Panama, Cocaine flows through Panama had doubled.
In reality, Noreiga's crime had not been drug smuggling. Noreiga was punished because he was freelancing. The drug war economy is about power and control.

DOMESTIC ECONOMIC POLICY

At home, the drug war eliminates investment in legitimate industry and promotes the black market as alternative employment. The police state is created to fight the emerging black market and the destruction of our civil and economic rights. At the same time the police state is used as a temporary alternative employment program to replace employment in our declining industrial base. The police state has certain advantages to legitimate industry. The police state enforces the declining industrial base, eliminates investment in the domestic economy and creates no products that compete with the global economy. The drug war also eliminates hemp as an industrial raw material. This gives monopoly control over the industrial raw materials and finished products produced for the American consumer. Hemp prohibition and the drug war eliminated over ten million jobs in America. It is the lynchpin to our emerging third world reality.

Here is how it is done. There are four key components to a successful domestic economy.
1) Access to industrial raw materials. 2) A skilled work force. 3) Existing manufacturing sector.
4) Existing profitable markets. The Drug war eliminated access to the strategic industrial raw material, hemp. The cost of the drug war provide temporary employment of displaced workers. The costs eliminate investments in education, job training and infrastructure. The existing profitable markets are paid for by our credit card economy. Economic decisions like these created the 175 billion dollar trade deficits and over five trillion dollars of public debt through the federal government alone. This type of policy is economic suicide for the citizens but consolidates power in the hands of the rich.

This is our new world order. An economic order where the police state we create will enforce our third world economy. It has also created the highest drug abuse rates in the industrial world.
Compare our economic brilliance to our economic competitor, Japan. The Japanese population is roughly half the size of the U.S. Their prison spending is approximately 1.5 billion dollars annually. Excluding court costs, our prison system is costing over 65 billion dollars annually.
Our investments decisions did not produce unemployment rates of 2.0%, 100 billion dollar federal budget surpluses or 150 billion dollar trade surpluses. Theirs did. The Japanese citizen has no motive to participate in the drug war economy and neither does their government. The American citizen is far less fortunate.

HEALTH AND SAFETY REALITIES

Unfortunately, this is not even the tip of the iceberg. For every minor dying from illegal drugs, 14 will be killed by their parents, 20 will commit suicide, 80 will die in alcohol related incidents and 500 will contract AIDS. We will be burying many of our children in a very short time because we did not separate rhetoric from reality. We were to timid to demand health care officials in our schools to address health care issues. We allowed police in our schools because someone else paid for it. We then allowed them to promote their own agenda over the health and safety of our community, the truth and our children. Before this is over we will all see the blood on our own hands.

Every year in America almost 30 % of our cancer fatalities are death by starvation. In 1989 the state of California completed a twenty year study called the "Cannabis Therapeutic Research Program". Copies are available through the State Library Government Publications. These conclusions are quotes from the report. 1) "The California Legislature found that the potential medicinal value of Cannabis Sativa (marijuana) had received insufficient study due to the lack of financial incentives of private drug manufacturing concerns." 2) "Nausea and vomiting were better controlled by THC than by other previous antimetrics in 75% and 73% of the patients respectively." 3) PHYSICIANS RATED THC AS MODERATELY TO VERY EFFECTIVE IN 82% OF THE TREATMENT EPISODES."

CONCLUSIONS

Drugs are dangerous but the drug war is a killer. Irresponsible use of illegal drug resulted in less that 7,000 fatalities last year. Irresponsible use of the legal alternatives (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, etc. etc.) are responsible for more than 600,000 fatalities last year. We are participating in a war against American citizens for profit. Soon the Drug War Economy will be held accountable for this conduct. When that day comes we will not be as forgiving as your God and the flag you are hiding behind. We will treat this conduct and the beneficiaries of these policies the way they treated America's cancer patients. Death by starvation. Jay Lindberg revised 8/11/97

Developing the Drug War Economy Theory also by Jay Lindberg