Bill Clinton: The drug war hasn’t worked
Clinton joined other world leaders — including former President Jimmy Carter — in filmmaker Sam Branson’s new documentary “Breaking the Taboo,” which premiered Thursday at New York’s Google headquarters and charges that the global war on drugs is a failure.
“What I tried to do was to focus on every aspect of the problem. I tried to empower the Colombians for example to do more militarily and police-wise because I thought that they had to. Thirty percent of their country was in the hands of the narcotraffickers,” Clinton says in the film, which is available free online. …
Clinton later says: “Well obviously if the expected results was that we would eliminate serious drug use in America and eliminate the narcotrafficking networks – it hasn’t worked.”
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I guess Bill wants to smoke more than cigars…and inhale this time.
steebo77 on December 8, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Looks like Carter learned something from Obama — both pathetic little narcissists (or was it the other way around?): only in Carter’s case, he’ll now be (and probably has been, except nobody listens to him) blaming all U.S. failures on Reagan …
ShainS on December 8, 2012 at 11:30 AM
I think most Colombians would say that Plan Colombia was a huge success. What percentage of their country is in the hands of the narcotraffickers (who happen to be almost universally leftwing radicals with ties to the many socialist caudillos of Latin America) now?
steebo77 on December 8, 2012 at 11:39 AM
That’s “Noted Druggie Bill Clinton….”
Steve Eggleston on December 8, 2012 at 11:48 AM
I like Columbia but the Drug War was not sold as some kind of charity mission, it was sold as a Drug War to protect the US.
And despite internal progress there, the drug trade in South and Central America is going stronger than ever.
Every time we cut off the snake’s head the new snake that appeared was 10 times worse. The cartels now make the Medellin cartel(for instance) look like choir boys.
It’s been an abject failure on every level.
CorporatePiggy on December 8, 2012 at 12:04 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoSb8H5C1F0
davidk on December 8, 2012 at 12:45 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFwhCLYO_-M
davidk on December 8, 2012 at 12:47 PM
So the same people who think drug laws don’t work believe gun laws do and will.
Do you have to take a moron test to become a lefty?
The Notorious G.O.P on December 8, 2012 at 12:48 PM
He’s right.
Neither has the War on Poverty.
Wander on December 8, 2012 at 1:08 PM
and, drugs are also a failure. It’s difficult. Like an alcoholic who falls off the wagon, or a coke or meth or heroin addict who relapses. Or like a pothead having another wasted day instead of doing the things he planned on doing. Life is tough. You pick yourself up and try again.
Look at the current obesity levels due to the abuse of food, a safe, legal, and essential product. Think of how much more damage the widespread consumption of drugs would cause.
Paul-Cincy on December 8, 2012 at 1:17 PM
Prohibition is a dumb idea.
Smart people figured this out 80 years ago.
Moesart on December 8, 2012 at 1:21 PM
You mean criminalizing something that was once not only legal but very prevalent, an integral part of our culture? Sure. What does that have to do with the War on Drugs?
Can you imagine joints being mass produced and sold like cigarettes at the corner store? We’d become like Yemen or Somalia, where at any one time a good amount of the population is either stoned on khat, growing khat, or working to get khat.
Paul-Cincy on December 8, 2012 at 1:30 PM
But the War on the Producers….it is going quite well.
ProfShadow on December 8, 2012 at 1:45 PM
I got news for you. A good amount of the population is stoned right now, and it does absolutely nothing to you.
The idea is to get these people out of incarceration and the court system. Save that for real crimes.
If they want to use drugs, adults can choose to do that. I don’t, BTW.
OK, technically this beer in my hand is a drug, but not really. C’mon, it’s Saturday afternoon.
Moesart on December 8, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Remind me again why I should give a good goddamned about what Colombians want?
The fact is that, from a US perspective of both domestic and foreign policy, the War on Drugs, including Plan Colombia, was, and is, a massive, ongoing failure.
JohnGalt23 on December 8, 2012 at 2:09 PM
The beer in your hand is a food.
The alcohol in the beer is a drug…
JohnGalt23 on December 8, 2012 at 2:11 PM
Whiskey is mass-produced, sold in stores in packaging for individual consumption. And yet, somehow, we’ve managed to avoid the fate of Ireland…
JohnGalt23 on December 8, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Allow me to add…
A little something from David Peel…
JohnGalt23 on December 8, 2012 at 2:14 PM
And all the merry while, the People In Charge(tm) do whatever the heck they please because the populace is too stoned or too busy scraping up the money for another fix.
The Galtian simpletons cannot and will not comprehend that the Obama regime is merely ending the drug war to try to neuter opposition. And it WILL work, the only question is to what degree.
MelonCollie on December 8, 2012 at 3:37 PM