After an overdose at one of the fraternity houses on the campus of San Diego State University last year, Operation Sudden Fall was launched. The operation was under the direction of the DEA in association with local police and lead to 96 people getting arrested in San Diego, 75 of which were students. They apparently found a couple of kilo's of cocaine, some ecstasy, marijuana, mushrooms, meth, prescription drugs, and three guns.
My heart goes out to these students, being that I have witnessed a raid first hand. Police tend to treat you like you have raped or murdered someone. It's extremely easy to get a boot in your stomach or upside you head, maybe you will be just lucky enough to only have your cuffs tightened enough to bruise the flesh. After all, this is a war on drugs... and there are casualties of war.
Among the arrested was a kid who was about to graduate with a criminal science degree and another who was about to get his master's in Homeland Security! What if they had not been caught and landed a job working for the government? Better question: how many like him are working for the government now? I am sure it is more than we can imagine!
Now that they have gotten the so-called bad guys, do they actually think this will stop the use of drugs? Or will it instead just make the users find a new source? Through the history of the War on Drugs, there have been millions arrested and this still has not stopped the demand for drugs. At some point they have to realize that incarceration will not win this war, the education and rehabilation of those involved will. Education through the hands-on involvement of the true addicts, which would show kids the outcome of drug use. It helped my kids, for I took them on a field trip to the slums to see how awful drug users really look and live. As of this day, none of them get high. The answer is rehabilitation, not incarceration. Putting a violator into some type of school to teach them a trade would better him or herself as well as society. After all, the dealers are looking for ways to make money and it costs less to send a violator to a vocational/technical school as opposed to prison - it costs $34,000 per year to house a prisoner.
Any drug that has been forced to the black market tends to be more in demand than legal drugs. Let's look at the big picture, "Prohibition" is what got the prices of drugs so high and created the black market. Statistics show there have been more deaths through legal drugs than illegal. Through drunk driving and liver and lung cancer, alcohol and tobacco have been two of the leading causes of death throughout the U.S. and abroad. Yet the government continues to allow the advertisement and sales of these products! I just lost my stepfather two months ago to cigarettes. The doctor told him five years prior that if he didn't stop smoking, he would die. He continued to smoke until his death which proves he had to be addicted. Why are there no consequences for the tobacco companies? Some might argue that tobacco is not nearly as intoxicating as other substances and should be classified separately. However, there are many legal prescription drugs that will give you the same effect as illegal drugs. This begs the question: is this really a war on drugs, or just a war on the drugs that don't bring in tax revenues?
I wonder; if the Feds had been this active in the 60's, would we have the same society we do now? If every hippy that smoked a joint or did a hit of acid got locked up, where would we be? Some of our most creative minds came from that era. Maybe if we talk about it enough, people in influential positions will start to consider the real cost of this "War on Drugs." The cost to not only our families and fellow citizens, but to our morality itself! When will we change the way we think and start to treat drug use as a sickness and not a crime?
Ricky Ross
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Check out this new video by Kevin Booth about Operation Sudden Fall:
9 comments:
Great article, Ricky! Good to hear how you have educated your kids too :-)
What you say is reasonable but you forgot that the government is NOT reasonable. They are benefiting from the illegality of it --- think of the jobs created in the DEA and the cheap labor (read: slave labor) that inmates perform for the privatized prison industry. Some say the govt is benefiting the most by being the supreme drug lord--profiting on the importation of drugs as well as the enforcement of the war on drugs. War is a racket and the war on drugs is a racket as well.
I thought I'd introduce myself and wish you the very best for the future and the hope that the promise you have found inside yourself will lead you to a better life.
I spent several years in prison. Scientology set me up with the police on a drug bust that was cleverly engineered. Some years later I was facing near life in prison in Hawaii for 3 Class A felonies; 60 years mandatory. I beat it with an entrapment defense and remain the only person in Hawaii's history to accomplish it. I think that was payback for the first time.
In neither case was I actually engaged in the things I got arrested for. In both cases the situation was set up to take me down.
I pissed off the Scientologists at their original Washington D.C. location. In the second case I pissed off the authorities with my stage presentations.
I don't live in the US anymore and it's the smartest thing I've done; no more looking over my shoulder.
People don't like it when you tell the truth. Many of us are raised to do just that but it turns out that we aren't supposed to after all (grin).
You hang in there and may God and fortune smile on you.
I found a book at opposingdigits called Allen Carr's Easyway to Quit Smoking. What a look at tobbaco addiction!!! The government profits as much or more than big tobbaco and promulgate P.S.A. s that increase the fear and stress that is a large part of that addiction. The best book on Prohibition that I've ever read is Mike Gray's Drug Crazy. I realize after reading Carr's book that their's a lot of American cultural phenomina that increases the insanely dangerous nature of prohibition - certainly Capone was organizing politically and the same 'hoods exsist today.....
Can you receive used books at that address?
Looks like things haven't changed much since the crack days of the eighties. The war on drugs was always about busting the runners and low level dealers to increase the prison population, outsource it and most of all profit from the international trade and use that money to fund wars. Now instead of to the contras, the cash goes to fund 911s and covert cia actions in many countries. I'm glad I put the stem down back in 1990, and after reading dark alliance, I can only wish you the best. After all you've been through, I hope you're ok today.
Hi Ricky,
Thanks for an insightful post.
At your mention of the "creative hippies" I couldn't help but be reminded of Dave McGowan's excellent exposition of the goings-on in Laurel Canyon, the sinister background of all the flower power children, and the dark and sticky touch of the CIA/NSA in the whole thing ... yet another twist to the drug sub-culture story!
Thank you all for your comments, they are truly appreciated!
Dawn, thanks for bringing these issues to my attention. You are absolutely right, this illegal war on drugs definitely creates jobs for the D.E.A. as well as crooked informants. Did you know that they put bounties on peoples heads? I heard of one informant that made five million dollars. The reason this came to the public attention was because he had lied on a number of cases. Well I can attest to some of the government bringing in drugs. The informant on my case was a Nicaraguan contra and the CIA turned a blind eye while they sold drugs. And I am all too familiar with the slave labor. The FBOP has a industry called Unicor which produces products for the community. These jobs are performed for as little as 25 cents per hour when they could be performed by our citizens. This creates unemployment which leads to crime!
Joe, thanks for bringing up that point. Reading your comment made me think, it's not that Americans have turned to bad people but it's our educational system which has failed us. Our elected officials have forgotten that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. They have eyes but they don't see straight, they talk but it's foolishness, they hear but they don't comprehend, they have brains but fail to use them. For someone to witness first hand the tragedy of substance abuse, opposed to just telling them, can be what steers that person in the right direction. Thanks again for you input and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Visible, thanks for the good wishes. Sorry to hear about your stay in prison but I think we are becoming the majority. If our government continues to muniplate the law in order to lock more people up, we will most definitely be the majority. With 2.2 million incarcerated and tens of millions ex felons, it shows that they will pay you back. It has been proven that law enforcement will plant drugs on you and purger themselves on the witness stand. The shape this country is in "at this point" due to the mismanagement and lies of our leaders, I can see why you moved on. This shows true through the Obama campaign and how he easily wins the popular vote. Thanks again, hope to hear from you soon.
$RR$
Anarcryptopolis, thank you for your comments. I have not read "EZ Way to Quit Smoking" but I figured the government had to be profiting in order to let these tobbaco companies poison our citizens. I have not read "Drug Crazy" either but I would love to learn more about prohibition. And its sad to say that some of those books you refer to dont influence politics but are politicians themselves these days. Yes, I can receive used books and it would be a blessing to read books of this nature.
Political Spazz, thanks for your response. Its a terrible reality that times have not changed since the eighties. Our government is a mastermind and if they stopped going after the low level dealers, this would kill their profits from cheap prison labor. If you stop the major suppliers, it will cripple the low level dealers. That's why I say our government is a mastermind, keep the drugs rolling in the country and keep the population of the prisons boiling over. I hope you enjoyed Dark Alliance as much as I did and I am glad we have something in common. I wish that Gary was still here, he was a man who never minded sticking his neck out for others. Especially on the injustice of Big Brother. His story shows that once you do something that is considered politically incorrect, Big Brother as well as the media will gang up on you.
$RR$
An LA teacher did a video, JFK II, on links btw Wall Street, Corporations, the Nazis, CIA, Yale, and JFK assassination. Some big names, Bush being one of them. Touches on drug dealers too. Nixon bailed out E. Howard Hunt with $1M from a Mexican dealer associate of Felix Rodriguez and Bush, when Hunt threatened to squeal.
Same guy did a video for kids that covered Danilo Blandon and how he was running drugs across America, and international, but they went after his dealer, not supplier.
The high school kids figured out who his supplier was. Confirmed by ex-DEA Cele Castillo and the late Gene Tatum, who answered to "Jake" a.k.a. Col. Oliver North.
No wonder kids don't respect the Law. Neither do the criminals who run the madhouse.
Someone posted a funny flow-chart from Ronald Reagan to Death Row Records. I don't mean to sound racist, I think that the diff btw Big Label gangsta rap vs. small label political hip hop is a form of intentional cultural homicide, for sensationalizing drugs and murder.
TV Shows like Cops and CSI is the other side of the same game.
Immortal Technique and DJ Damo are a couple solid underground rappers with a serious message.
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