Review: Three Stoners Living In Miami Beach

This paper will discuss how the CIA and/or the American government played a role in the death of investigative journalist, Gary Webb. Whether it is a conspiracy or not many question how the investigative journalist died and why his death was ruled as a suicide. Gary Webb was most known for tracking down corruption and exposing it to millions of Americans. He wrote stories about corruption from county, state, and federal levels, for more than thirty four years. He is most known for writing an article titled "Dark Alliance", which “linked the CIA to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the Iran-Contra scandal. He found that drug dealers were smuggling cocaine into the United States and the CIA was using the money to arm Nicaraguan rebels.” (Webb, G. 1998) Webb is also known for writing his last article, written for the Sacramento News titled "The Killing Game”. The article exposes “the

I’ve lived in South Ozone Park, Queens for three years and throughout those three years my family and I have overall good remarks. South Ozone Park used to be a predominant Italian neighborhood, but over the years a lot of Guyanese individuals have occupied residency here, so that’s mainly the type of people you see in this neighborhood. There are of course plenty of people from other backgrounds; the whole area of South Ozone Park is pretty diverse. Italians still live here, and so do some Hispanics like Dominicans and Cubans from what I’ve seen on my block, but there are surely others. In my block everyone gets along because we all know each other well. Most of the residents on my block (there are

In the 80’s, President Ronald Regan, declared a “War on Drugs,” which began to utilize criminal justice systems to shuffle black and brown men into a world of injustice. The mass incarceration of these men are for minor, non-violent drug offenses; which carry brutal sentences and entrap these black and brown men into an unforgiven reality of societal and financial discrimination. Alexander unveiled the budget increase for several major governmental agencies such as the FBI—funding increased from $8 million to $95 million with in a four-year span.

Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States serving from 1969 to 1974. His presidency was ended by the Watergate scandal from which he forced to resigned while facing impeachment, further highlighting the level of corruption in the presidency. John Daniel Ehrlichman served as counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon which led detailed information on the inner workings of the presidency. This War on Drugs was declared to fulfill Nixon’s racism and political agenda, and continues to this day. With this war heavily criticised and deemed lost (Willis), along with piling evidence of the medical benefits of marijuana, why does this war continue? According to Dunn, the financial incentives are to blame, especially forfeitures. According to an article written by Nicholson, police have seized almost five hundred million dollars through civil forfeiture in the past decade in the Texas state alone. With this large amount of money on the line, it is understandable why many wish this war to continue. Without it, civil forfeiture would be less

The fact that there are two sides or viewpoints to every feud, also means that one side influences the other. This one illustrates how blindsided humans have become on certain issues. The fact that the truth for one side can mean that the opposing side false shows how close minded humans have come to be. Either we’re too stubborn to listen or purposely ignoring what can possibly be the truth. Jeremy Scahill, in his narrative "Dirty Wars" reprimands the Obama military activity on war on terror. He negates what he portrays as the organization 's endeavors to "standardize and legitimize" by drones executed and generally Special Operations attacks and other secret military practices that blur the fight lines of the war on terror. In fact, the war on terror and the war on drugs have converged to shape a hydra-headed beast that greedily targets not only Americans, but specific groups of people. Strategies and enactment used to battle terrorism in the U.S. have been turned on the drug war, with awful outcomes measured in lives, appendages, and money. From the Patriot Act to the utilization of witnesses to reconnaissance, the wars on drugs and terror have dissolved into each other. Both conflict, drugs and terrorist associations, are criminal according to universal law in any case if their exercises are persuaded by governmental issues or financial matters.

In the documentary, High Crimes and Misdemeanor (1990) produced by frontline, details the side effects from the Iran-Contra affair proposed by the Reagan Administration and the consequences of the Reagan administration for not complying with its constitutional authority on notifying the United States Congress on the covert operation, which is the main organ responsible for the appropriations of funds and its allocation. The Covert Operation facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was under a strict arms embargo during the hostage situation in 1979.

The drug war was primarily a partisan show of force Ronald Reagan and George Bush Senior and subsequent Presidential administrations have used to feign concern about public safety, crime prevention, and the needs of the victims of drug users. While it was widely reported (Ronald Reagans’ son and former President George Bush Senior’s son former President George Bush Junior were smoking weed and snorting cocaine) (4). While the “War on Drugs” were based on political motives, (that is not the full story) as the “war on drugs” in hindsight proved itself to be a “war” on black and brown

It was typical hot friday afternoon in Miami, Florida where I encountered Mr. Tomas Name, a current law student, at the set rendezvous(Tijuana Flats). The good sir eager to start the interview received me with an ecstatic grin and said “let us get to it.” Of course after ordering the mega burritos, I got the tape recorder and we began the interview about the war on drugs, Mr. Tomas’ favorite subject. Immediately with a fire starter question like “what are your current thoughts on the U.S. Federal drug policy?” the gears were set into motion, without a flinch Mr. Tomas replied, “lately it's been getting slightly better, but not enough to call it a success.” He also inferred that how is cannabis a schedule 1 narcotic when the U.S. government has medicinal patents on the

Instead, one can point to the early 1990s, along with Ronald Reagan’s war against drugs as a major catalyst for stronger drug enforcement in the United States. There is a significant increase in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual budget between 1990 and 1991, according to Figure 2. The DEA’s budget experiences almost a forty thousand dollar increase between these two years; one of the largest increases in its budget in a one year span. More specifically, King asserts that the “significant expansion of the drug war was fueled almost entirely by a focus on marijuana.” King’s investigation exhibit that the number of arrests due to possession of marijuana has increased by 113% form 1990 to 2002, while the number of total drug arrests increased by 41% percent.18 This goes to show that law enforcement resources were not being used efficiently to counteract these minor offenses. This is because the large increase in government expenditures did not result in a significant rise in drug arrests as expected. Instead, the number of drug arrests dropped from 1991 to 1990, indicating that the emphasis on enforcement was not working. Therefore, it is evident that there has been a significant increase in drug enforcement because of the intensified need for security in the United States. From the data on drug enforcement in the country and the information on new approaches to detecting narcotics in airport, it can be implied that the drug enforcement in airports has also been strengthened. This new enhanced administration in airports has resulted in intrusions upon people’s privacy, which have not been justified by the

The story Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and The Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb have many topics. This book is based on “Dark Alliance”, Webb’s investigation series published in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996. The story explains how the CIA brought cocaine to poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles to help finance war, how three people created the cocaine pipeline, and how the cocaine epidemic impacted the black community. This book also shows how The CIA used the Contras to import Cocaine. The story Dark Alliance has many plots.

Today’s world is changing at a rapid pace. Things never thought to be possible are becoming very real. One of the popular subjects of wanting change is the legalization of drugs. There has already been a small amount of change in the drug legalization process with marijuana now being legal in a few of the states. Vanessa Baird in her work “Legalize Drugs- all of them!” argues for the legalization and decriminalization of drugs. John P. Walters counters Baird’s argument for legalization in his piece “Don’t Legalize Drugs.” Both authors take an extended look into the harsh reality of the drug war and the small progress it has made since it began.

Gary Webb wrote a series titled Dark Alliance in the San Jose Mercury News from August 18-20 1996, revealing CIA ties into funding the Contras, a guerrilla war group in Nicaragua backed by the Regan Administration, by trafficking crack cocaine into the United States through “Freeway” Rick Ross, a drug kingpin in South Central Los Angeles, ultimately leading to the America’s crack epidemic in the

The term “Covert Action” brings with it a connotation of shadowy figures wrapped in secrecy and intrigue. It also brings with it a substantial amount of moral questions as to “what is right.” The use of covert action has been widely publicized since the early seventies, but trying to find out the truth to these events has been difficult to say the least. What is even more difficult, is historically recording these events into categories of successes or failures. These operations are difficult to dissect because of their secrecy and although events have been recorded, some facts simply aren’t apparent. This paper will seek to identify the complex issues associated with covert operations.

Tackling the War on Drugs (CD) and Combating Transnational Crime Organizations (TCO) is an important national security problem. While addressing this issue in a scholastic forum, I immersed myself into this problem set using the guidance of assuming the role of Colonel Tim Killian. Utilizing the provided case and the ADIA framework and course concepts, I reviewed and assessed the information presented. The goal of Joint Task Force North (JTFN) J-5 is to develop a “strategy for military support to counter drug efforts and more broadly fight transnational organized crime.”

According to Michelle Alexander, why and how has the “war on drugs” developed over the last 40 years? What are the main political and economic factors that led to the war on drugs, and what are the main political and economic factors that shaped it as it developed over the last four decades? Draw on material from the Foner textbook chapters 25 through 28 to supplement Alexander’s discussion of the political and economic context.