Mary Mitchell writes that we should throw in the towel on the unwinnable war on drugs.
Why?
Because neither party directly involved in the drug war wants is to end. They both benefit, so why should they want it to end?
This is the kind of tragedy that makes James Gierach’s blood boil. For decades, Gierach has been on a crusade to end the nation’s failed drug war.
“Nearly any crisis you can name in America is made worse by the war on drugs: gangs, drugs, prison, AIDS, guns, crime, taxes and deficits,” Gierach argues.
“The reason that this drug war has lasted for 40 years is because both the good guys and the bad guys are in favor of it,” he said.
“The bad guys are in favor of prohibition because the only place you can get it is from them. And the good guys are protecting the growing prisons and subcontractors.
“You have to hire more judges, prosecutors, more probation officers, more parole officers, more drug counselors, and more drug testing labs,” Gierach continued, ticking off a long list of industries that benefit from the criminalization of drugs.
“So what we end up with are the good guys riding the drug war gravy train same as the bad guys,” he said.
James Gierach is a lawyer and board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
He’s right. Look at the vast majority of problems in the Americas: North, Central, or South. Many of them can be directly traced back to drug prohibition. All this US-Mexico border violence? It’s all drugs. Do you think the violence would be as it is if drugs were legalized and sold like Pepsi? or even regulated/restricted sales like alcohol or tobacco?
I grant, drug use can destroy lives. But just about anything in this world can destroy lives. Sex can destroy marriages and destroy lives… should we make it illegal? should it be banned? Instead, when it comes to matters of gambling, alcohol, sex, etc. we treat these like health matters. Why don’t we focus more on drug use as a health matter? Instead of pouring billions of dollars into 40 years of ineffective prohibition, what if that money was spent on health matters be it education, treatment, or taking care of other societal health issues like hunger? Why is the focus on making it a criminal matter? Stop making it a criminal matter and much of the crime and pain goes away. Could it create an increase in the health matter? It could, but then at least we could be straight about it, confront it, and work with it in the light. Instead, because it’s a criminal matter many people remain in the darkness and never get the treatment they need because they too afraid of criminal repercussions. Where is the humanity and compassion in that?
I don’t deny that drugs can destroy lives, but the “War On Drugs” is contributing far more destruction, waste, pain, suffering, and death. We need to stop the blind belief that this “war” is accomplishing something, that to call for a stop to failed policy is somehow showing you’re weak or in favor of everyone running around high 24/7. If we really want the social state to improve, ending the failed drug war is a good place to start. But it’s going to take YOU to be willing to stand up and say it.
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I don’t think this is an area that is easily fixed. It’s going to cost us money and lives regardless of how we deal with it. I believe one European country that legalized some drugs recently decided to start going the other way with it. If so, there must have been a compelling reason to. I would prefer to err on the side of freedom as much as possible. I just don’t know what would be the lesser evil here. Once invented, drugs will always exist, much like guns, so we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. People do already use prolifically. That would tend to lend credence to similar treatment to alcohol. I once read that when China got tired of opium dens and their effects on their society, they started rounding up all the addicts. Maybe drugs are worse? I dunno. Never used so no first hand experience. There is some history as a guide but I haven’t studied it extensively.
No it’s not going to be easy to fix, but we have to start trying to fix it. The thing that gets me? You know the old saying about the definition of insanity? doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? We’ve been doing that for the past 40 years with the “war on drugs” and we keep expecting different results… you know… that the war will be “won”, that drug use will be curtailed. So by definition, it’s insanity that we keep going like we are. Why are we still doing it?
I believe that while Amsterdam has a level of toleration of drug use, which has actually proven successful, it’s because drugs remain so illegal worldwide that the problem has gotten worse there and they’re trying to clamp down more. Any time you can point to “things are worse”, look a little deeper and you’ll see the worse comes from the fact it’s illegal.
Look back at Prohibition… what it caused, then what the repeal did. Do we still have gang warfare over booze? Nope…. in fact, we have publicly traded companies. We treat alcohol for the impacts it has to society, because it still has social and health issues; but we no longer treat it like a criminal issue (tho you can do things that cause criminal aspects, e.g. DWI). Why shouldn’t drugs be treated any differently?