Many of us can see today that we are moving quickly towards a completely controlled ‘police state’ all over the globe. More and more restrictions and less and less freedom for everyone, sometimes it seems we are taking a step towards it nearly every day. With things like the Patriot Act, the SPP, NAFTA, and the troop exchange deals it’s easy to see the plan for a centralized one world government coming to fruition.

One of the main tools of any police state is prohibition. The prohibition of substances creates a victimless crime which can be used to control populations. Prohibition has been used through the ages to create criminals out of otherwise law abiding people and to take freedom from the people and give power to the state. Here is a time-line of how police states have used prohibition through the ages.

This information was extracted from Jack Herer’s excellent book “The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana” and is courtesy of the Cato Institute.

• 16th century
  Coffee banned in Egypt and supplies of coffee burned – use spreads rapidly.
• 17th century
  The czar of Russia executes tobacco users.
• c.1650
  Tobacco prohibited in Bavaria, Saxony, Zurich; the Ottoman sultan zealously executes smokers to no avail.
• 1736
  The Gin Act fails to halt consumption in England.
• 1792
  The penalty for opium selling in China is strangulation.
• 1845
  New York bans the public sale of liquor – repeals law two years later.
• 1875 – 1914
  27 states and cities ban opium smoking – opium smoking increases sevenfold.
• 1914
  Passage of Harrison Narcotics Act controlling opium and cocoa derivitaves.
• 1914
  Czar bans alcohol – Bolsheviks lift ban in 1924.
• 1914-1970
  Congress passes 55 laws to strengthen Harrison Act.
• 1918
  Special Committee studies Harrison Act effects – widespread smuggling and increased use of narcotics – and calls for stricter enforcement.
• 1919
  Eighteenth Amendment banning alcohol is passed – repealed in 1933.
• 1919 – 1933
  Use of marijuana, ether, and coffee increases.
• 1921
  Cigarettes are illegal in 14 states.
• 1924
  Congress bans heroin completely – after law passed, heroin replaces morphine in black market.
• 1937
  First federal law against marijuana.
• 1949
  Law enforcement crackdown on non-prescription barbiturates – use increases 800% 1942-1969.
• 1955
  Shah of Iran bans opium – ban partially repealed in 1969.
• 1956
  U.S. Narcotic Drug Control Act provides for death penalty for selling heroin to minors.
• 1958
  Soviet premier Khruschchev raises alcohol prices 21% to reduce consumption – he later deems the program a failure.
• 1959
  Campaign against glue-sniffing begins – causes “a boom in cocaine smuggling” by 1969.
• 1962
  FDA halts legal production of LSD – LSD use skyrockets by 1970.
• 1965
  Amphetamine enforcement intensifies – causes “a boom in cocaine smuggling” by 1969.
• 1968
  Campaign against marijuana use among U.S. troops in Vietnam – soldiers switch to heroin.
• 1969
  New York City increases drug arrests by 9000 – no impact on drug availability noted.
• 1971
  All-out campaign against heroin use in Vietnam fails.
• 1971
  900 pounds of heroin seized in New York City – no increase in price occurs.
• 1971
  President Nixon declares drugs “America’s public enemy No. 1.”
• 1972
  The House passes a $1 Billion anti-drug bill.
• 1972
  President Nixon declares drugs “America’s public enemy No. 1.” – again.
• 1973
  Rockefeller’s tough drug bill is passed in New York.
• 1973
  President Nixon announces, “We have turned the corner on drug addition in America.”
• 1975
  Malaysia enacts death penalty for drug trafficking.
• 1975
  Singapore enacts death penalty for drug trafficking – a few years later, a drug official says, “Heroin seems to be more widely used than ever.”
• 1977
  Bar Association committee concludes that Rockefeller drug law had no effect on heroin use.
• 1980
  300,000 youths in Malausia are using illegal drugs.
• 1983
  Malaysia toughens death penalty for drug trafficking.
  Soviets crack down on alcohol consumption.
• 1986
  Moscow officials lower taxes on alcohol.
• 1987
  Soviets increase penalties against moonshining.
• 1987
  Malaysia’s 12 foot high, double barbed wire security fence protecting 32 miles of border with Thailand fails to halt drug traffic.
• 1987
  Legal alcohol production down 50% in Soviet Union; hard liquor moonshining up 40%; homemade wine production up 300%; 200,000 prosecuted for illegal home brewing.
• 1987
  Soviets launch “Operation Black Poppy” to stop opium use – 2000 poppy fields destroyed.
• 1987
  The Russian city of Murmansk bans sale of men’s cologne (containing alcohol) until 2pm, when liquor stores open.
• 1987
  Glue-sniffing doubles among high school students in Soviet Union.
• 1988
  Title of Tamba Tribune feature article: “The Joke Among Federal Agents: ‘We’ve Turned the Corner on Drugs.’ “
• 1989
  President Reagan declares victory in War on Drugs as being a major achievement of his administration.
• 1989
  Secretary of State James A. Baker III reports that the global war on narcotics production “is clearly not being won.”

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