Dear Nobel Committee,

The drug war, not the drugs, kills people.

     This is now a real war. Although it started out as political rhetoric, it’s become a genuinely deadly conflict. It has killed more Americans (700,000) than all of our other wars combined and we are now exporting murder to Mexico, with more than 5,000 deaths in 2008 alone. It has caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and untold misery, especially to children, teens, women, and minorities. And like all wars, it’s been hugely expensive and wasteful; to date, it has cost more than a trillion dollars. And this is just in the United States; the international devastation is incomprehensible. Furthermore, like many wars, it’s based on lies.

     Furthermore the drug war funds terrorism, is an ecological disaster, and even worsens global warming.

    The few deaths that are caused by the drugs are due to impurities, dosages that are not standardized, and reluctance to call 911 when someone overdoses out of fear of being arrested. Replacing prohibition with sensible health-oriented alternatives, including legalizing currently illicit drugs, can eliminate these drug-related deaths.
 
   The Dutch should be recognized for their remarkable human rights achievement of regulating and decriminalizing drugs and equally important, offering comprehensive treatment to its affected citizens. The number of lives they have saved, as well as assaults, robberies, rapes, child abuse, and other prohibition-related criminal activities that they’ve prevented, is a major humanitarian and public health accomplishment. Their success in minimizing the catastrophic effects of the War on Drugs cannot be overstated. For example, the U.S. has six times as many people in prisons as the Netherlands per capita, and we still have four times their murder rate and five times their hard drug use. Compared to ours, the Dutch prison population is negligible and they actually provide education and rehabilitation for their inmates. Furthermore, their incidence of AIDS and hepatitis is a fraction of ours.

   Taken together, these groundbreaking medical, human rights and humanitarian accomplishments are of unprecedented magnitude. They not only serve as an inspiration to the rest of the world, they also demand emulation. Because of this, it is recommended that Louk Hulsman, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Law at the University of Rotterdam, who was originally responsible for crafting the forward-thinking drug policy in the Netherlands and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, who administer their very successful current drug policies, be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
    

    I am enclosing a copy of my book so you can see the full impact of the Netherlands’ policy and the complete devastation of our prohibition. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Appreciatively,
Stephen H. Frye, M.D.                                                                               
    Author: We Really Lost This War! Twenty-five Reasons to Legalize Drugs   
www.25Reasons.org
(775) 772-8868, PST

The War on Drug kills people, not the drugs!
       * In 70 years our drug war has killed 700,000 of our citizens, more than all our other wars combined and far
           more people than drugs kill. And with 5,000 Mexicans killed this year alone, we now export murder.

The War on Drugs has been a catastrophic failure in every arena.
       *The US has five per cent of the world’s population but now uses 60 per cent of the world’s drugs.

We have the highest incarceration rate in the world with more prisoners than China or India.
       *Our prisons kill one-third of prisoners by age 45 and two-thirds are rearrested within three years, meaning
            at best they rehabilitate only one-third. They are thus a total deadly failure as ex-felons can rarely get
            work other than dealing drugs, so our drug policy actually increases the drug epidemic.

The propaganda: We wage this war to protect our children. The devastating and deadly facts:
       *We have deprived millions of children and teenagers of their incarcerated parent(s).
       *Kids placed in foster care have four times the death rate of those left with their parents.  
       *This drug war has created an obscene teenage murder rate that’s nineteen times higher than in the
           Netherlands where drugs are legally available.
       *We have turned a million of our teens into drug dealers and they have four times the death rate of
            prisoners on Texas’ death row.            
       *Only 50 percent of high school students graduate in our ten biggest cities and only 40 per cent graduate in
           NYC, Baltimore and Detroit. In the Netherlands where drugs are regulated, controlled and taxed, 92 per
           cent graduate; that’s No Child Left Behind!

This War on Drugs is also Racism Worse Than Slavery ever was.
        *Whites commit the crime (87% of the drug users), while blacks do the time (74% go to prison). This war
             has done much more harm to black families than slavery ever did. Our African-American
             incarceration rates are atrocious and prisons actually rehabilitate/kill about the same number.
         *Our major cities have drug-war created ghettos, while there is not one ghetto in the Netherlands.

This war destroys the environment and increases global warming.
        *It has contributed to the deforestation of South American rain forests equivalent to the acreage of four
            U.S. states, while dangerously adding hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals to the environment.
        *It has increased global warming directly by this horrendous deforestation, and indirectly, as we are
            the only industrialized nation in the world prevented from using the very ecologically-friendly hemp for
           paper, wood and hemp fuel, which could dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Narcoterrorism: Our drug war funds terrorists!
         *It’s totally immoral for us to wage a war on terrorists and kill innocent Iraqi women and children, while
            at the same time funding terrorists with drug cartel profits.

The greatest corruption in the history of the U.S.
         * It has caused more corruption of citizens, policemen, judges, etc. than anything else in our history and
             has also resulted in the trampling of our Constitution. This corruption has now become international.

The Netherlands absolutely has the answer.
         *We have six times their incarceration rate and still have four times their murder rate. By making all
            drugs legally accessible with treatment available for anyone that wants it, they have one-fifth our hard
            drug use and half our marijuana use, which really makes no difference as no one dies from marijuana.
            They provide extensive treatment, the only thing that has ever proven to reduce drug use and demand.   

Economically: We squander $70 billion on this war annually and this would pay for half a health plan. We also
             lose the tax revenue from drugs and marijuana is the biggest cash crop in both the U.S. and Canada.

The Nobel Prize. Based upon my recommendation, NORML is pursuing the nomination of the Netherlands for
             a Nobel Prize for their success and information is available at www.Netherlands4Nobel.

Author: Stephen H. Frye, M.D., Retired professor, University of Nevada School of Medicine  
Cell phone: 775/772-8868, PST

E-mail: Steve.a.reno@Juno.com. Web site: 25Reasons.org contains the Table of Contents and sample pages.

Dr. Frye’s Bio

     Stephen H. Frye, M.D., was born in Boston and educated at Boston Latin School and Boston University, and earned his M.D. degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine. After his internship in 1968-1969 at the San Francisco General Hospital, he was drafted as a physician and volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) during the Vietnam era. After his military service, he completed his psychiatric training at the Langley Porter Neuro-Psychiatric Institute of the University of California, San Francisco. He served as the Director of Mental Health for Sonoma County, Calif., for four years, then founded a private practice multi-specialty mental health group and directed it for 18 years. He concluded his distinguished career by teaching for one year at the University of Nevada School of Medicine before retiring. Dr. Frye then hosted a radio talk show in Reno called “Politics and Health,” where he first became interested in drug legalization. After more than three years of full-time study and research, he has become an expert on drug issues. He’s the divorced father of two adult sons, and is also a pianist, sailor, skier, and world traveler, having visited 45 countries, 44 states, and 8 Canadian provinces.

Hi Steve, I just finished reading your book, We Really Lost This War! Twenty-Five Reasons To Legalize Drugs. Did anything in particular inspire you to write it?

As I researched our drug policy for my radio talk show, I became amazed with what a devastating and deadly catastrophe it is. I had to write this book to start to change the policy that is so racist and lethal to our kids and teens.

Steve, although you’re now in Reno, Nevada, like so many of us, you’re from Northern California. Tell me about yourself and that.

I was born in Boston and attended Boston Latin School. I studied piano at the Boston Conservatory of Music. I then graduated from Boston University and earned my M.D. degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine. After my internship at San Francisco General Hospital, I was drafted and volunteered to serve as a physician in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) during the Vietnam era. After my military service, I completed my psychiatric training at the Langley Porter Neuro-Psychiatric Institute of the University of California, San Francisco. I served as the Director of Mental Health for Sonoma County, California for four years, then founded a private practice multi-specialty mental health group and directed it for 18 years. I concluded my medical career by teaching at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. I’m the divorced father of two adult sons and play the piano, sail, ski, and am a world traveler, having visited 45 countries, 44 states, and 8 Canadian provinces.

Why Reno?

I moved to Reno in 2000 to teach in the medical school and because I have always loved Reno, Tahoe and skiing.

I understand that the book’s title has been moved around due to a possible movie deal. What’s going on there?

At the book show in LA in June, a documentary filmmaker agreed that it would make a great “Inconvenient Truth” type film with me giving my lecture and film clips behind me. He suggested that I make the subtitle the title, so “We Really Lost This War!” became the title.

A review of 25 Reasons To Legalize Drugs was done by another BrooWaha writer in Fall 2007. The writer is a Santa Rosa, California attorney and he wrote “Hopefully it will turn the tide and we as a country will adopt what Holland has so successfully proven. The stranglehold burden on lawyers and our courts will be lifted. The drug dealer, the middle-man, the only one who currently benefits, will be eliminated. The savings to taxpayers is enormous. Add to that savings the sales tax collected off the legal sale of the drugs.” In your book you noted many judges have made the same complaint about the failed War on Drugs clogging up the legal system. Tell me about that.

Judge James Gray wrote in his outstanding book, “Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed” about the devastation wrought by a war he witnessed from the frontlines as a trial judge and federal prosecutor in detail. Marijuana smoking is a totally victimless crime and is much safer than alcohol. It’s the safest recreational, OTC or RX drug in history. There has never been a single medically recorded death from pot alone. In fact, the only way you can die from it is to get arrested and get killed in jail, where one-third of prisoners are dead by age 45.

Your book has some very depressing stuff in it, all well documented. President Lincoln wrote that “Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. President. Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of Representatives. With Lincoln’s words it made me wonder why we enacted Prohibition at all and with the colossal failure of Prohibition against alcohol, why did we later repeat that mistake with marijuana?

The drug prohibition law was based on lies and racism with support from the alcohol industry and the totally fictitious movie, “Refer Madness” that depicts a young man getting crazy and violent on pot, the most mellowing drug in the world. The AMA testified that it was not a good policy, but then as now, being tough on drugs is great politics, but devastating and deadly policy. We are never smart about drugs, always tough.

We have the highest incarceration rates in the world by far, and still have the highest drug use. We have 5% of the world’s population, but 60% of the drug use and one million teenagers selling drugs, more than all the rest of the world combined. We never learned our lesson from the success of the repeal of Prohibition.

Tell me about the Netherland’s Nobel Prize.
At the international Drug Policy Alliance conference in New Orleans in Dec. 2008, the question was raised as to how we could publicize the success of the Dutch policy. I suggested that we learn from Al Gore and nominate the Netherlands for a Nobel Prize and to my surprise there was a 30 second roar of applause. Not one person suggested that it was not a great idea. NORML has followed through and the web site Netherland4Nobel.org is up and we are working on it.

If you were offered the appointment as Drug Czar, would you accept?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I would eliminate the ONDCP and most of the DEA, saving the taxpayers billions of dollars a year!

The ONDCP is a massive total lying failure as indicated in the revealing book, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics, A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy,” written by two professors. My goal is to change the policy to regulate, control and tax, as they have done with such great achievements in the Netherlands.

Thank you Steve. Any last words?

The War on Drugs kills people, not drugs. Prison kills far more people than drugs and AIDS also is more deadly. Compared to these disasters, drugs are benign.

Twenty-five Reasons:

1. We Really Lost This War!

2. This War Kills Children!

3. Teen Gangs Are a Deadly Growth Industry

4. Devastating Impact on Women

5. Racism Worse Than Slavery

6. The Netherlands’ Spectacular Success

7. Treatment Is a Bargain? MDs, Not DAs

8. Harm Reduction Is the Answer

9. Huge Avoidable Increases in Contagious Diseases

10. The Truth? Drugs Are Rarely Deadly

11. Marijuana’s Miraculous Benefits

12. Murder, Overdoses, and AIDS Are More Deadly Than Drugs

13. Extreme Environmental Toxicity? National and International Poisons

14. Hemp, a Global Warming Powerhouse Wasted

15. Even Animals Get “High”

16. The Cancerous Prison-Industrial Complex

17. Economics ? A Trillion Plus Squandered

18. Narco-Terrorism ? We Fund It!

19. The Worst Corruption in the History of the United States

20. International Crime, Corruption, & Government Destabilization

21. Grave Judicial Concerns

22. Relentless Erosion of the Bill of Rights

23. Unintended Consequences ? Everything Backfires!

24. Medical Groups, Judges, Churches, and Law-Enforcement Organizations Support Drug Reform

25. All 23 Independent Government Commissions Support

We Really Lost This War!

http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3939

http://digg.com/general_sciences/We_Really_Lost_This_War_on_Drugs

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The war in Iraq. The War on Terror. The War on Drugs.

All wars have reasons against waging them. But Dr. Stephen Frye has 25 to end the latter and to end it now.

In May, Frye, a retired psychiatrist and former medical school professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, finished his book “We Really Lost This War! Twenty-Five Reasons to Legalize Drugs.”

His point is perhaps best summed up in the opening pages of the book, which took him over three and a half years to research and write: “ ‘War on Drugs’ is over. We lost. … This book is a call for peace.”

“What most people don’t realize about their health care is that there are a lot political decisions behind it,” Frye said. “And everything that the government told us about the War on Drugs was a lie.”

Having treated many former chronic pain patients with medical marijuana, Frye said he has come to realize and understand that the United States has taken a large, expensive stake in an unbeatable and unnecessary war.

Frye says that marijuana is not only harmless but is also a treatment for alcoholism, helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease and helps cure and prevent strokes. Even hemp, coming from the same cannabis plant, can be used as an efficient alternative energy source.

“But doctors still know only very little about it,” Frye said, mentioning that much of this conclusive research is found outside of the United States. “Sadly, they only know one fact — that it’s illegal.”

It is this illegality that Frye cites as the main cause of deaths and related violence problems in the United States, explaining that there are far more deaths from street violence related to the War on Drugs than there are actual drug overdoses.

Also, he says, in comparison to the number of deaths in prison or from AIDS or Hepatitis, “drugs are benign.”

“The War on Drugs kills far more people than drugs do,” Frye said. “We ended Prohibition and then moved to drugs. It’s a catastrophe.”

Past marijuana, Frye said he urges for the legalization of all drugs, similar to that of the Netherlands.

Advocating for taxation, regulation and control of all such substances, Frye said the effects are beneficial, much like the Netherlands’ lower rate of drug use — five times lower for hard drugs, two times lower for marijuana use — and a murder rate four times lower than the United States.

“Netherlands has the answer,” Frye said. “What we have to do is legalize everything, otherwise it won’t make a difference.”

A difference, Frye said, that could end societal inequalities at large. He argues that drug use is now the most racist issue in America as “police do not look for drug users on Wall Street, they look for them in the ghettos.”

Frye’s 417-page book, called “The most important book of the new millennium” by Dr. Dean Edell, Frye said he hopes to convince his readers to push for future legislation, adding that this is something America is ready for now.

“I want readers to call their senator and tell them ‘We have to end the War on Drugs,’ “ Frye said. “The country is ready for it. We just need more education about it.”

For more information about Frye’s book, visit his Web site at www.25reasons.org.

Published by the Sparks Tribune