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See: Global Marijuana March. ~600 different cities since 1999. First Saturday in May. City lists: 1999 2000 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 2010. 11 ...Search them. Add city name to search.
With less than 5% of world population the USA has over 2.4 million of 9.8 million world prisoners! The majority of U.S. inmates are in due to the drug war.
Most Republican leaders oppose cheap universal healthcare. 45,000 uninsured Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance.

Click for corporatism quotes!Greens worldwide against Drug War. News, platforms, charts. Stopping the racist, corporatist prison state.

Some historical info. Green Party drug reform candidates, positions, etc. worldwide. Cannabis, marijuana, drugs, harm reduction.

Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products." -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
Mirrors 1. 2. Change mirror pages if problems.

*Table of Contents. After text loads, click topics below. Click TopLink, back button, or HomeKey to return here fast.
 
*Intro and electoral systems worldwide.
*Latest links to be found. Worldwide.
*More links. Worldwide.

*November 2000 election in USA. Ralph Nader on drug war, hemp, corporate prison industry. Mendocino County.

*Green drug war platforms worldwide.
*Universal healthcare, harm reduction, drug reform.

*DrugNews search shortcuts. For Green Party, cannabis, drug war, etc..

*Drug War charts, and more.


 

Intro. Electoral systems worldwide. [TopLink]

This is historical info.
Corporatism quotes.
*Electoral systems worldwide, and drug reform. Voting systems. Majoritarian systems. Single transferable vote (preference or choice voting). Instant Runoff Voting. Ranking candidates. Approval voting. Cumulative voting. Multiple run-offs. Electoral college. Plurality representation (first past the post). Majority representation (two round system). Block vote. Alternative vote. Parallel (semi-proportional) representation. List proportional representation. Mixed member proportional representation. Single transferable vote (preference or choice voting). Voting equipment, machines. Direct democracy. Consensus. Modified consensus. For info on all of this:
http://corporatism.tripod.com/voting.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/voting.htm

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Latest links to be found. Worldwide. [TopLink]

*Green Parties Worldwide.
http://www.greens.org

*alt.politics.greens is a Usenet newsgroup about the Greens. Worldwide. PUBLIC archive and latest messages:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=alt.politics.greens

*2004 NORML and MPP.org voter guides and report cards for presidential candidates.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5895 and
http://www.mpp.org/candidates/guide

*2004. October 24. Nader Urges Bush to Grant Clemency for Non-Violent Drug Offenders.
http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=317

*2004. War on Drugs -- Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights - Nader for President 2004. [Emphasis added].
"An End to the War on Drugs — Responsible & Rehabilitation Focused Drug Policy. The drug war has failed – we spend nearly $50 billion annually on the drug war and problems related to drug abuse continue to worsen. We need to acknowledge that drug abuse is a health problem with social and economic consequences. Therefore, the solutions are – public health, social services and economic development and tender supportive time with addicts in our depersonalized society. Law enforcement should be at the edges of drug control not at the center. It is time to bring some illegal drugs within the law by regulating, taxing and controlling them. Ending the drug war will dramatically reduce street crime, violence and homicides related to underground drug dealing."
A DRCnet interview with Ralph Nader in 2004 goes into great detail on all the above:
http://www.votenader.org/issues/index.php?cid=21

*2004. Hemp Issues -- Environment - Nader for President 2004.
http://www.votenader.org/issues/index.php?cid=30

*10-2001. 500 hear Ralph Nader speak at Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) convention during weekend of November 10-11, 2001 in Washington DC. 
http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/11965/ and
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/211/newgeneration.shtml and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drugwarnews/message/774

Quote from article on SSDP convention begins [Emphasis added]:
And, demonstrating that interest in drug policy reform transcends traditional ideological lines, the conference's other big attraction was Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who urged students to have stamina and resiliency in what could be a long, hard battle. "We need to develop new words and new language to describe what's happening," said Nader. "Can you say institutionalized insanity?"

"It was incredibly cool that Nader came," said SSDP member Jennifer Landis. "He lends legitimacy to the movement." He also drew a crowd. According to Heller, some 500 people paid $5 (student) or $10 (general admission) to hear Nader's address at the downtown Marriott Hotel. [Quote ends.]

*2000. Ralph Nader on Drugs. From an election 2000 page:
http://www.issues2000.org/Ralph_Nader_Drugs.htm

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More links. Worldwide. [TopLink]

*Drug war. GreenInformation.com
http://www.greeninformation.com/DRUGWAR.htm

*4-1999. US CA: A Big Green Upset. Audie Bock, the first Green to win a state legislature seat in the USA. "even though this will probably get me into trouble," she wants marijuana legalized. She won a state office seat from the Bay Area in California. April 1999.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n395/a09.html

*7-2000. Germany. Greens, Social Democrats, Socialists. For medical cannabis in Bundestag. IACM-Bulletin of 9 July 2000.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27752

*12-1999. The Greening Of NEW ZEALAND. Jeanette Fitzsimons's victory. "Drug abuse is a social and public health problem, not a legal one... possession and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis for personal use should be decriminalised."
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1332/a01.html?397


*8-1999. Stalking Rudy and Hillary: Al 'Grandpa Munster' Lewis Interview. He's a Green Party candidate for Senate. "Over two million people are in gulags ...write to Al Lewis, WBAI, 120 Wall Street, NY, NY 10005. These people are being buried alive." WORLDWIDE loco-weed travels!!
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/new/9908/grandpa.html


*MAP/DrugNews press archives search SHORTCUT for Green cannabis press worldwide. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top. Most of the press is from outside the USA, since "cannabis" is the term for marijuana in many nations outside the USA.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis&YY1=1997


*4-2000. A16. Over 600 arrests of A16 activists at the 2-million-inmates, prison-industrial-complex rally April 15, 2000 in Washington D.C. 600 arrests of A16 activists at the 2-million-inmates, prison-industrial-complex rally April 15, 2000 in Washington D.C. Many Greens involved. A section of the web page below. CLICK!
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/links.htm#16

*World drug reform. Saner Cannabis and Drug Policies worldwide. Harm reduction examples. Universal healthcare is available in many of these nations that use a public health and harm reduction approach to drugs. Compilation of many world press articles. In chronological order. Many with Green Party info, too.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/power.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/power.htm

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Greens and November 2000 election in USA. [TopLink]

Feel free to copy and distribute this section, or the whole web page.

Ralph Nader on drug war, cannabis, hemp, corporate prison industry, etc.. Mendocino County ballot initiative, etc.. LATEST LINKS ON TOP. https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/greens.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm

If you are viewing this from somewhere (forum, message board, email list archive, IndyMedia site, etc.) other than a source web page, and can't see the photos, then click the source links just above. The source web page shows the photos, and the latest revisions.

*11-2000. Nader still against drug war after the election. Remarks at the National Press Club November 8, 2000, the day after the U.S. presidential election. "We believe that there are many people in both parties who agree with us that the drug war is a colossal costly failure that has filled our jails with non-violent crimes."
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x31650 and
http://www.egroups.com/message/drugwarnews/571

*11-2000. EarthFilms.org - Striptease To Save The Trees! Chanting poetry which exhorted them to respect the "naked, sacred" body of the earth, Mendocino performance artist "La Tigresa" (aka Dona Nieto) performed excerpts from her one-woman show "Who Says A Stripper Can't Save The World?" before startled eyes, and halted bulldozers of a Fortuna -based logging crew on Branscomb Road. La Tigresa is part of the "Goddess Squadess", a nonviolent art attack consisting of "Nude Guerilla Poetry" and "Strip Tease To Save The Trees!" and other surprises to come. Such as the "Bare Witch Project."
http://earthfilms.org/strip.html

*11-2000. Mendocino County First in US To Decriminalize Marijuana. "By a 58-42 margin Tuesday, Mendocino County voters approved a measure to decriminalize personal use of marijuana, a first in the United States. The Green Party-sponsored Measure G ran strong in every area of the county, ... The marijuana measure, which has attracted national attention, would allow individuals to grow and harvest up to 25 plants. Sale and transportation of marijuana still would be illegal."
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7593.shtml

*11-2000. Mendocino Measure G: marijuana initiative. Text of ballot initiative that voters passed November 7, 2000 in Mendocino County, in northern California.
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/lawlibrary/measureg.htm

*11-2000. Life As Usual in Emerald Triangle. "Mendocino County, home to 86,000 people and part of the state's fabled 'Emerald Triangle,' is linked to the controversial plant as surely as its vineyards yield world-class wines. ... voters here last week heartily embraced a measure that allows anyone in the county to grow as many as 25 full-grown marijuana plants or possess the dried equivalent. The first law of its kind nationwide, ...'This is a powerful political statement on marijuana by a Northern California county,' said Hamburg, 52, who lives in Ukiah and is a member of the Green Party committee that put Measure G on the ballot. Hamburg, a former Democratic congressman and the state's Green Party gubernatorial candidate two years ago, said he expects similar measures on other county ballots and possibly even a statewide initiative."
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7643.shtml

*MAP/DrugNews press archives search shortcut for Mendocino. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=mendocino&YY1=1997

*CannabisNews.com press archives search shortcut for Mendocino.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=mendocino

*MAP/DrugNews press archives search shortcut for Ralph Nader. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader&YY1=1997

*CannabisNews.com press archives search shortcut for Ralph Nader.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=nader

*10-2000. 15,000 Help Nader 'Rock the Garden.' "Tim Robbins, came out draped in an American flag in a wheelchair playing Bob Roberts, a fictional right-wing politician from his movie of the same name, and sang a satirical song called 'Drugs Stink.' ... Singer Ani DiFranco played what she called 'a little ditty about the drug war.' "
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9933 and
http://www.workingforchange.com/news/article.cfm?ItemId=8294

*10-2000. About 13,500 supporters pack a sold-out Madison Square Garden at a rally for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in New York on Friday, Oct. 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Ed Betz). - Oct 13 10:53 PM ET.

*10-2000. MTV.com. Vedder, DiFranco, More Play For Nader In NYC. Madison Square Garden, Friday, October 13, 2000. Article with photos and music video-clips of Eddie Vedder (of musical group Pearl Jam), Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper. Click photos to start RealVideo clips. "In his speech, Nader condemned the concentration of corporate power, advocated ending the war against drugs, ... Actor Tim Robbins brought a touch of humor to the event, taking the stage in the guise of the arch-conservative, folk-singing title character of his 1992 film 'Bob Roberts.' 'It's my honor to be at this rally to support George W. Bush,' Robbins said, taking in the crowd's boos before launching earnestly into anti-drug and pro-Wall Street folk songs."

*10-2000. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, left, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, right, laugh as they listen to Phil Donahue speak at a press conference before a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Friday, Oct. 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin). - Oct 13 8:12 PM ET.

*10-2000. Salon.com Politics | Nader packs 'em in at the Garden. "He [Phil Donahue] brought up a few of the central issues of the night: the need for universal healthcare, the evils of corporate mergers and the failed war on drugs. 'If you fall while ice skating, you're covered in Canada because you're Canadian. Ask Canadians if they want to swap with us,' he said. ... And, he said, 'Ralph Nader wants to end the rootin' tootin' Wild West of the war on drugs.' "
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/14/nader/index.html

*10-2000. CNN.com - Loyal Nader fans pack Madison Square Garden. Friday, October 13, 2000. "Speakers assailed Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore as ideologically similar candidates in the pocket of corporate America. They said the two have similar views on trade, foreign policy and the war on drugs." Article with photos.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/10/14/nader.ap/index.html

*10-2000. NYC-IMC radio > Keepin' it real on the streets and in the studio since 2000. Go to the section called "Ralph Nader 'Super-Rally' at Madison Square Garden, New York City - October 13, 2000." Many audio clips of music and speeches archived at New York City Independent Media Center.
http://www.nyc.indymedia.org

*10-2000. New York City IndyMedia site. Lots of articles, audio, and photos of the October 13, 2000, Ralph Nader, Super-Rally at Madison Square Garden. Also some video. Here is a Google search shortcut:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:nyc.indymedia.org+nader+madison+square+garden

10-2000. Rob Lowe, left, host of "Saturday Night Live," rehearses a sketch with Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the show's set Saturday, Oct. 7, 2000, in New York. In the sketch, Nader is asking why he wasn't allowed to be in the "debate sketch," a sketch which preceded this sketch. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Nader has not been allowed to participate in debates with presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. Photo by NBC, Mary Ellen Matthews (AP).

*10-2000. Hey eco! Nader did a skit on SNL & mentioned Pot. Saturday Night Live season premiere October 7, 2000. "Ralph Nader did a skit with Rob Lowe and he said in his mind that maybe I should tell him I want to legalize pot when I become president." -as reported by FoM of CannabisNews.com fame.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x30496

*10-2000. Nader Alert on drug war, death penalty, prison industrial complex. October 2, 2000 Action Alert from the Nader 2000 Campaign email list.
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/nader.htm

*9-2000. Nader Tells Corporations to Get Out of the Prison Industry. September 27, 2000 at rally in Youngstown, Ohio. Nader on the prison industrial complex.
http://www.egroups.com/message/drugwarnews/529

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews search shortcut for many press articles about Ralph Nader's September 8, 2000 press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he called for legalizing cannabis/marijuana, and for harm reduction drug reform. Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products. " -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+johnson+santa&YY1=1997


*9-2000. US: Nader Says Decriminalize Marijuana. Long article. "Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, joining Republican Gov. Gary Johnson in criticizing the nation's war on drugs, called Friday for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Johnson has made waves politically for more than a year by advocating the legalization of marijuana and heroin. However, he has since dropped his support for making it legal to use heroin because it proved too controversial. He is the nation's highest-ranking elected official to publicly support drug legalization. ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products." -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread6977.shtml and
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a06.html


*9-2000. Nader favors legalizing marijuana. "Nader on Friday [September 8, 2000] advocated the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... 'Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem,' Nader said at a news conference where he was flanked by the GOP governor. 'We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. We do not send nicotine users to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are non-violent drug users.' Nader -- like Johnson -- supports lifting criminal sanctions for marijuana possession. For other drugs, such as heroin, he advocated 'harm reduction' programs, ..." Short AP story was posted in various newspapers. For example:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a02.html?34290 -AP
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a02.html?34296 -press
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1343/a01.html?34296 -press

*9-2000. Johnson Joins Nader In Decrying Drug Laws. Long article. "... criticizing the nation's war on drugs, calling for the legalization of marijuana and reform of what Nader calls 'self-defeating and antiquated' drug laws. 'Addiction, no matter what kind of addiction, should not be criminalized,' Nader said at a news conference [on September 8, 2000]." -Santa Fe New Mexican, September 9, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1345/a05.html

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Nader 2000 campaign staff member Stacy Malkan, talk during a news conference in Washington, Tuesday Sept. 5, 2000, where Nader criticized a Drug Enforcement Administration plan to ban hemp foods. Photo by Rick Bowmer (AP).

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews SEARCH SHORTCUT for press articles about RALPH NADER's September 5, 2000 press conference about HEMP.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+hemp+dakota&YY1=1997

*8-2000. August 2, 2000. Philadelphia Youth Conference, Question and Answer with Ralph Nader. Drugs section excerpted after the link URL.
http://votenader.org/press/000802PhillyYouthTranscript.htm [URL no longer works]

Drugs

The cost of imprisoning one person each year totals $23,000, whereas the cost for treatment in a methadone rehabilitation clinic totals only $4000. Yet, most alarming is the percentage of minorities in prison. The US is comprised of 75% Caucasian, nearly 75% of the prison population may be categorized as minority. Mr. Nader, our goal is to help facilitate people with drug abuse problems to take control become a positive part of the community. Funding must be reallocated to rehabilitation centers across the country. Our first solution is to recall the laws governing mandatory minimum drug sentencing that wastes monetary resources and destroys communities. How do you feel about this, Mr. Nader?

Nader: Agreed. You have to treat individual's injustices as individuals. Our second solution is to decrease prison funding and increase funding for drug rehabilitation. You don't treat nicotine addicts as criminals; you don't treat alcoholics in this country as criminals. Why are you treating drug addicts as criminals instead of treating them as patients bringing all the problems up to the surface so we can treat them? Instead, we are criminalizing the problem, we are militarizing the problem and we are wasting tens of billions of dollars on policies that are failing. The war on drugs has got no standard of failure attached to it. There is no way of telling that their policies are failing. And by the way, always distinguish between pharmaceutical drugs and street drugs. There are a lot of young people in this country that are over medicated and over drugged. [end of drugs section excerpt]



*6-2000. In his June 25 2000 acceptance speech, Ralph Nader elaborated beyond the written statement. On the drug issue, Nader asked of the Drug Enforcement Agency: "What standard of failure would you apply before we can go back to the table (to discuss drug policy)?"
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread6549.shtml

*6-2000. Ralph Nader acceptance statement. Drug war quotes pulled to the top. Hemp, too. June 25, 2000 Green Party presidential nomination acceptance statement. Nader condemns drug war, corporate prison industry, racist criminal justice system, and hemp prohibition.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27673 and
http://www.egroups.com/message/drugwarnews/382

"At home our criminal justice system, being increasingly driven by the corporate prison industry that wants ever more customers, grossly discriminates against minorities and is greatly distorted by the extremely expensive and failed war on drugs." ...

"In Hawaii, we visited one of the only two plots in the United States (the other is on the Pine Ridge Reservation) legally permitted to grow industrial hemp, that 5000 year old, versatile plant with thousands of uses, including textiles, fuel, food and paper. A fraction of an acre was surrounded by barbed wire fence, saturation night lights inside a larger fenced area. This medieval experience brought home once again that for the sake of farmers, the environment, consumers and energy independence, it is necessary to free industrial hemp from the proscribed list of U.S. Drug and Enforcement Agency."



*C-SPAN. Campaign 2000. Ralph Nader. Speeches and interviews. VIDEOS. Green Party presidential nominee. One needs to install RealPlayer first. Using RealPlayer one can move forward or backward in the videos almost instantly. C-SPAN also has a search engine available for the whole site, including the video transcripts.
http://www.c-span.org/campaign2000/naderspeeches.asp

*6-2000. Today Nader on CSPAN 930PM ET. Drug war, hemp, Greens. etc.. Today's Healing Herb Show: Special Update. Vivian McPeak: "he's talking about the drug war, hemp, etc." Renee Boje: "Tom Ballanco, the lawyer for Peter McWilliams, BE Smith, Woody Harrelson & Julia Butterfly Hill will also be joining us tonight on the Healing Herb Hour..."
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27214


*Greens. Drug War Platforms Worldwide. Also some info from Usenet messages by a web page compiler of Green Party platform links. Links, processes, history, and sources for Green platform positions on drug war, drug reform, harm reduction, hemp, cannabis, marijuana, legalization, decriminalization, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/platforms.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/platforms.htm

*Green Party platforms.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Green+Party+platforms

*Association of State Green Parties. This is Ralph Nader's 2000 platform.
http://www.gp.org/platform_index.html

Question: Do you think that cigarettes should be illegal?
Ralph Nader:
No. You never prohibit an addiction because what you do is you drive it underground and a huge black market occurs. What you do with an addiction is expose the addicters to massive information, protect them from deceptive advertising, protect the young from being sold such [things] as tobacco products. Keep the research up to make whatever tobacco is consumed less lethal in terms of nicotine and other levels and increasingly make it socially stigmatized so that people often will stop smoking or won't smoke, not because it's bad for their health, but because it's no longer the thing to do. When I was in college, non-smokers were on the defensive. The smokers would blow smoke derisively in non-smokers faces. You'd never see that today.
--Source: David Frost interview Oct 21, 1994.

-----------------------------------

Green Party platforms. Links. Excerpts on cannabis, drug war, prisons, etc.. [TopLink]

*Greens. Drug War Platforms Worldwide. Also some info from Usenet messages by a web page compiler of Green Party platform links. Links, processes, history, and sources for Green platform positions on drug war, drug reform, harm reduction, hemp, cannabis, marijuana, legalization, decriminalization, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/platforms.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/platforms.htm

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Universal healthcare, harm reduction, drug reform. [TopLink]

The insane worldwide drug war, the prison-industrial complex, and the CIA's (and others') far-right, drug-funded, covert operation, death squad network worldwide is being dismantled outside the USA mainly through HARM REDUCTION drug reform, often led by Greens. This has been occurring mainly in Western Europe and is spreading to other Western industrialized nations such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

*Universal healthcare. Charts. It is very helpful to a harm reduction drug policy. Cheaper, more effective, public health alternatives to expensive, oppressive, insane U.S.-style, drug wars worldwide. Sanity versus public hysteria, prisons, propaganda, and death squads. Healthcare costs by nation, per person, as a percentage of GDP, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/universal.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm

Fighting the separate and growing power of the corporate prison industrial complex. I pledge allegiance to Wackenhut. Republicans actually like the idea of privatizing prisons.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling power. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."
-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (One Thousand Americans, George Seldes, page 5.)
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas3.htm

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." ~ An anonymous analysis of Benito Mussolini's fascism in Italy.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/texas.htm Texas is an evil fundamentalist example today. ;)

"The only difference between Bush and Gore is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock at the door."
--Ralph Nader (Green Party presidential candidate. Election year 2000 quote).

Prison is being less and less used, especially for soft drugs. Drug maintenance, voluntary treatment, and/or mandatory treatment outside prison is being implemented for hard drugs. Prison is used less and less for all drug users, or not at all. Crime due to drugs is much lowered in the regions affected. Drunk driving, deaths due to driving while intoxicated, domestic violence due to alcohol, etc. are all drug harms that are being lowered through more targeted education and laws. Germany has drastically reduced drunk driving and driving-while-intoxicated deaths. By much lower blood alcohol limits, and loss of driver's license for a period of time depending on the level of blood alcohol.

Europe is exposing death squad groups in Latin America (some are drug-funded) and death squad leaders new and old (such as Chile's U.S.-supported ex-president and mass-murderer Augusto Pinochet). The latest "Plan Colombia" military and death-squad approach to the drug war has been strongly opposed by European governments.

*9-2000. Europe Leading The Way To Smarter Drug Laws. One of the most thorough and understandable histories of harm reduction drug reform in one article. (Canadian newspaper article from the Ottawa Citizen).
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7039.shtml

Nearly all Western nations other than the USA have universal healthcare. It allows much more comprehensive care of drug users who desire help. It is essential for in-depth harm reduction drug reform, since many drug users can't afford the healthcare help they desire and/or need.

The USA ranks badly when compared against other Western industrialized nations concerning infant mortality rates, life expectancy, child poverty rates, etc.. Yet the USA spends far more yearly per capita per person for total, combined, private and public, healthcare expenditures. Much money in the USA is wasted on paperwork, overly priced drugs, and for care that is given far too late and when it is most expensive. Over 70,000 (mostly untested and unsafe) chemicals saturate the air, food, water, workplace, homes, etc. in the USA.
 

Total taxes. By nation. International comparisons. Americans pay more per person for healthcare and taxes than people in many other nations. The USA prefers to imprison its population rather than provide universal healthcare and a safety net.
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/taxes.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/taxes.htm

*Nader Calls for Single-Payer Health Care System. July 29, 2000. "Ralph Nader today called for a universal health care system in the U. S. which would be similar to the single-payer system in Canada. Nader noted that in the U. S. 24 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to administrative costs compared to 11 cents in Canada. He said the difference could go a long way in covering the 47 million Americans who now have no health insurance."
http://www.votenader.org/press/000729SinglePay.html and
http://www.votenader.org/press/000827healthcare.html

In the USA: Centrist, leftist, Green, European, and other harm reduction voices for drug reform are mostly kept out of the censored U.S. news.

Discussion of drug policy in the US mainstream corporate media has been (until recently) dominated for the most part by fanatical Republicans. Rabidly-rightist Republicans (supported by the far-right National Rifle Association), "law-and-order," drug warriors want ever-longer prison sentences. 

Harm reduction drug reform is a cheaper 'third way" alternative that is working now. Republicans fanatically opposes such compromise, gradualism, harm reduction based on universal healthcare, the safety net, etc.. 

Major stockholders of most big mainstream news corporations are rich. Therefore most of them are Republican or on the far-right.

Statement of Ralph Nader on media concentraion and bias.
http://dc.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=4206

The government wastes an incredible amount money. Agreed. It wastes it in the areas Republicans approve of. 
What is important are spending priorities, and keeping total taxes as a percent of the economy lower than it is now. Priorities such as the safety net and universal healthcare-based harm reduction drug reform.

The USA spends one-half of all the world's military spending. NATO nations other than the USA should be taking on much more of the West's share of military spending.
Charity will never cover the needs of the safety net and universal healthcare-based harm reduction drug reform. So this is an obvious area where government needs to do what people can't do for themselves. This happens to be the exact logic used by Republican ideologues for military and police spending. They are areas where doing it via the private sector just wouldn't be practical or feasible.

Police and court and prison money have become the new safety net. "3 hots and a cot" in a prison cell. With free (unwanted) sex via regular prison rape.
Universal healthcare is cheaper than healthcare for the few. Amazing but true. A real safety net is cheaper than prisons and courts and police. Amazing but true.
Green Harm reduction drug reform is cheaper than prisons and courts and police. Amazing but true.

To explore working alternatives to this rightist drug policy insanity in the USA media, see:

*Politics 101. Big Tent Revival of Harm Reduction, Drug Reform. Comparison of cannabis, marijuana, and drug war views of Greens, Libertarians, NRA, Democrats, Republicans, socialists, liberals, conservatives, fundamentalists, racists, etc.. Worldwide. Ideology, electoral systems, platforms, banners, charts, and more.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/politics101.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/politics101.htm

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MAP/DrugNews press archive. Search shortcuts. [TopLink]

This section is from this web page:

*Search Drug War and more. Shortcuts. Search engines. Directories. Press archives. Search forms.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/search.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/search.htm

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Search shortcuts. For Green Party, cannabis, etc.. Some custom MAP search shortcuts.

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews search shortcut for many press articles about Ralph Nader's September 8, 2000 press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he called for legalizing cannabis/marijuana, and for harm reduction drug reform. Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products. " -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+johnson+santa&YY1=2000


http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader and
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis

http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader&YY1=1997 and
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis&YY1=1997

http://www.mapinc.org/author/ralph+nader and
http://www.mapinc.org/author/ralph+nader&YY1=1997 and

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Drug War charts, and more. [TopLink]