{"id":32672,"date":"2017-05-18T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T22:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmn.fhsu.edu\/?p=32672"},"modified":"2017-05-18T17:00:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T22:00:49","slug":"end-drug-war-propaganda-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=32672","title":{"rendered":"End Drug War Propaganda – Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not reflect in any way those of the Tiger Media Network, its staff or Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n

By: \u00a0Darryl W. Perry<\/p>\n

According to media reports, Donald Trump has proposed slashing the budget for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from nearly $400 million per year to $24 million in the fiscal year 2018, which begins September 1, 2017. UPI reports that such a funding cut would eliminate 33 jobs from the so-called \u201cdrug czar\u201d personnel.<\/p>\n

UPI adds, the ONDCP which was \u201ccreated in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan, is responsible for managing the executive branch\u2019s anti-drug efforts and coordinating with state and local authorities to those ends.\u201d In other words, the ONDCP is responsible for government propaganda that tells people, in the words of Mr. Mackey from South Park, \u201cDrugs are bad. You shouldn\u2019t drugs. If you do them, you\u2019re bad, because drugs are bad, mkay.\u201d<\/p>\n

However spreading propaganda about drugs is not the only activity of the ONDCP. They also oversee the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) and Drug-Free Communities Support (DFC) programs. US News reports Bill Piper, senior director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, says he agrees with the budget proposal, \u201cHistorically it\u2019s been a propaganda group more than anything else. Given everything Trump and [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions have said and done, it\u2019s probably a good thing if this agency is eliminated.\u201d Adding, \u201cHIDTA and DFA programs are a waste of money\u201d that \u201ccontribute to mass incarceration\u201d, \u201cuse taxpayer dollars to oppose legalization,\u201d and fund groups that \u201cfocus on stigmatizing drug users.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a leaked document from the Office of Management and Budget, HIDTA & DFCA are duplicitous of other federal programs, and those other programs do not appear to be on the chopping block. However, the temporary spending bill passed by Congress recently did chop the DOJ\u2019s ability to enforce federal cannabis laws in 44 states, DC, Guam & Puerto Rico (Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota & South Dakota were excluded from this provision). That budget bill also prohibits the DOJ & DEA from interfering with Industrial Hemp research across the country.<\/p>\n

These measures are sure to upset Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who in February said, states can \u201cpass the laws they choose,\u201d adding it\u2019s still \u201ca violation of federal law to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

While these budget cuts may give some cause to celebrate what is effectively a cease-fire in one front of the Drug War, millions of dollar will still be spent prosecuting and incarcerating people who have created no identifiable victim. The War on Drugs has been going on for 45 years, and the drugs are winning!<\/p>\n

Darryl W. Perry has spent most of his adult life as an advocate & activist for peace and liberty. Darryl is an award winning author, publisher & radio\/TV host. He is a regular contributor to several weekly and monthly newspapers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not reflect in any way those of the Tiger Media Network, its… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55],"tags":[11064,106,441,103],"class_list":["post-32672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-drug-war","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-opinion-2","tag-tiger-media-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}