Obama famously said that he wasn’t against all wars, just stupid wars. Well, we have a war we have been fighting since the 60’s that is pretty stupid: the War on Drugs. Hah, you might say, that’s not a real war, like Iraq or Afghanistan. And yet, the War on Drugs has had far more casualties, and has cost far more money than almost any other war we have ever had. And it is a war that we have been fighting right here in our own country.
And now, the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) has come out with their report, and they recommend decriminalizing drugs on a global scale as the only long-term solution to the drug problem. Who are the GCDP? Some whacked out hippy drug users? Hardly. The commission is headed by George Schultz, a former US Secretary of State, and includes numerous former presidents and prime ministers of countries around the world, not to mention a former Secretary General of the UN.
You can read the GCDP report, or you can read an article about it from the New York Times, written by a former president of the US.
Seriously, that’s a lot of people willing to admit that the war on drugs has failed. So what’s holding us back? Pure stupidity? Or are we addicted to the war on drugs even more than we are to drugs?
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Or is Congress addicted to the money they get from the tobacco and alcohol lobbies? Neither of those businesses would fare well if drugs were legalized.
It’s insanity, which is the definition of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.
It is also a great boon for the prison industry. Only the US has an industry based on jailing its own citizens.
Ain’t “democracy” grand?
The tobacco and alcohol companies are *afraid* that they wouldn’t fare well if drugs were decriminalized, but they’re wrong. Doesn’t stop them from putting pressure on congress to maintain the status quo, I’m sure.
Not only that, but drug busts make a lot of money for the police and for the federal government. On top of that, it’s not easy to overcome the anti-drug mentality that’s been driven into government and law enforcement agencies over the years. It would be like deconstructing a nation of soldiers who’ve been trained to think, act, and live with a specific psychological framework.
I’d imagine that Big Pharma and – as mentioned above – the prison industry stand to lose more money than alcohol and tobacco if drugs are decriminalized. Oh, and let’s not forget about (I’m guessing privately owned) rehab centers like Duffy’s and Casa Palmera. Nice ads!
Yeah, it’s yet another example of that unholy American alliance: Corporate opportunists profit while puritanical prigs support them in order to feel morally superior. Because only immoral, irresponsible, and evil people would ever partake of an intoxicating substance.
At least with alcohol prohibition, we eventually realized that the ban was doing more damage than the thing we were trying to ban (and was not effective anyway), and repealed it.
Of course, back then, the gang violence fueled by prohibition was happening within our own country. This time we’ve managed to re-located most of it to Mexico.
Don’t forget, black market prices are much higher than open market prices. The pot growers in Humbolt lobbied heavily against legalization in California.
Okay folks, let’s get real about this entire situation. I’ve lived in various parts of this country and I can say this: “If you want access to drugs, you have it! Drugs are everywhere.” Our politicians always seem to get us involved in wars we cannot win; perhaps that’s because they’re never on the front line. At any rate, let’s get out of the drug war and tax the users. For those of you who think this solution would make drugs more rampant, get a grip, drugs are rampant. And the stoners on Capitol Hill make them even more rampant. America didn’t win in Vietnam (I know, that was my time to serve), and we’re not winning in Iraq or Afghanistan either. Let’s take that 200 million a day expenditure and spend it on the good ol’ US of A. That way, we just might have enough money left over to drop an unpleasant surprise on any country that wants to screw with us. This country is fixable; we just have too many elected officials in the way who ride the public gravy train. And for every one in office, there’s a hundred more riding on the their coattails. If we’re going to fight a war, let’s fight one we can win. I never picked on a 300 pound muscular giant; and folks, that’s not rocket science.