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Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Fri Feb 18, 2005 at 11:30:35 PM EST
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Crim Prof Blog reports that Bush's budget cuts money from the war on drugs:

Many state and local drug enforcement officials are upset with President Bush's proposed budget. It would cut federal grants for state and local efforts in the war on drugs, ending most of the support for hundreds of anti-drug task forces in more than 40 states across the country." Listen to detailed NPR report by Greg Allen.

We couldn't be happier.

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    Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War | 9 comments (9 topical)
    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#1)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 06:03:28 AM EST
    Yes, I'm very happy with some of the specific drug war budget cuts. However, the OVERALL federal drug control budget still INCREASES by $268 million in the President's proposed budget (increases in DEA and international efforts, drug testing, etc.). And with Mark Souder and law enforcement complaining about cuts in local programs, how much you want to bet that all of those cuts will get put back in when Congress gets to work on it?

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 07:34:42 AM EST
    The War on Drugs and the so called War On Terror has 140 billion to start, both will and are a war on our people. If you think that is nut's read about what john Negorponte helped the death squads in nicaragua and all over the place and in Mexico on top of that, ask despite the boland amendment such aid was handed out to kill innocent kids and woman and the old, by right wing mass killers, remember he was a hit guy for years and he still is doing business and its his business to do you next. anyway why have the cuts happened because our government big boys don't need it any-more and the next war is about you and the making of the third world usa. by the way Negorpontes father worked for hitler.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 08:04:57 AM EST
    Bush Budget cuts funding for drug war, eh???? An increase of a quarter billion dollars is a cut? What do we need, a new dictionary to decipher this blog? cut v. 1. to increase funding for. 2. to increase in general. Yeah, now I get it. To increase funding is a cut.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 10:03:27 AM EST
    Halliburton has no current contracts to support the war on drugs. The federal dollars need to be directed where they can be put to the best use - getting them directly into the pockets of the robber barons. Any reduction on the completely asinine war on drugs is just a unintended benefit.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 10:05:18 AM EST
    Maybe the law enforcement types who may lose funding (or get smaller increases than they expect) should read the handwriting on the wall and get a contract to train the Iraqi police. Patrick - your skill and experience would be a godsend to the nascent Iraqi democracy, can you go? You are a believer in the WOT, right?

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 11:09:09 AM EST
    Au contraire, CA! I don't know about Halliburton per se contracts re: WoD, but the Plan Colombia and Andean basin fumigation and drug intradiction (the one that shot the missionary down in Peru) programs are supported by all of these 60-something retired civilian and military pilots flying for DynCorp and Blackwell, another big top 10 defense-Halliburton type contractor that is also active in Afghan and Iraq right now (they provided security for Karzai and Bremer). And when you add in all the corporations on the incarceration gravy train, both those who sell to prisons and prisoners and profit from privatized prison labor (half from drug sentences), that's a lot of dough too. The biggest cuts seem to be from the more urban "pork": the cops on the street and the drugs task force/high intensity drug area programs. These "block grants" and 100,000 "cops on the streets" grants were Clinton programs popular with the big blue states, part of the "bipartisan" WoD. I'm not shedding any tears about the cops. Under the James Q. Wilson/Rudi Guiliani "broken windows" policing theories, stepped-up low level arrests like pot smoking, personal drug use, turnstile jumping, etc. became big parts of the policing metric. Cops were expected to do this, enjoyed doing it and (according to something a friend whose dad was a NYPD narc down near the old Wetlands club), they got 5 hours of overtime for every pot bust, so they did as many as they could to rack up their pensions in their last 3 years (where the pension salary base was set b4 retirement). This kind of policing we can do without so good riddance, 100,000 cops on the streets.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 11:36:21 AM EST
    There vill be perpetual var to support vour military industrial complex. Vany who var against the foriegn wars will be disposed vith as terrorists or drug abusers who threaten to rape the vhite woman.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#8)
    by kdog on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 05:28:27 PM EST
    I'm too skeptical to applaud. As noted above, the gov't has made clear their "war on terror" includes their "war on drugs", so I don't expect any change anytime soon. Money will still be spent to prosecute Americans who harm no one.

    Re: Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 19, 2005 at 05:33:11 PM EST
    Pretty funny when you think about it. Voting republican helps end the war on drugs. They'll pour all the money into a bogus war and then bankrupt the country. I've gotta remeber this. B

    Bush Budget Cuts Funding for Drug War | 9 comments (9 topical)