Log In | Register
After almost forty years it’s pretty obvious that the so called War on Drugs is a losing proposition. In fact it was a war lost from day one. By focusing on drug use in this country as a criminal matter and not treating it as the medical matter it really is; the war was doomed from the start. Drug use and addiction is a biochemical phenomenon, not a life style choice brought about by poor judgment or laziness. Nobody says, “I want to be a junkie when I grow up”. People may find themselves in situations, beyond their control, where they become addicted due in part to propinquity or circumstances; but virtually all drug users are trapped by the addictive quality of the drugs and the punitive nature of the laws we have created in a failed attempt to stop their use.
The crime that is created by the illegal drug trade is a product of the fact that the drugs are illegal, not the drugs themselves. Before, during and after America’s great experiment with Prohibition, alcohol addiction created problems for those addicted and their families, but the majority of Americans used alcohol with no great harm done. It was because of the illegality and hence high profits of alcohol during Prohibition, that crimes of all sorts became part of its milieu. Gangster based crime associated with alcohol ended with its re-legalization. And the same lack of criminality associated with them when they were legal has been true of most of the drugs that are currently illegal.
Once these drugs were made illegal; the criminality associated with them has become much greater. In some cases it actually controls the economics of whole countries, even regions; to their considerable detriment. In Mexico the death toll as a result of the conflict between the cartels and the military over control of the drug traffic into the U.S. runs into the thousands annually. The criminality of course spills over the U.S. – Mexico border and has created a network of gangs, foreign and domestic, that also murder one another in this country in considerable numbers in attempts to control the illegal drug traffic in cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. Crime has contributed significantly to the destruction of the communities of America’s inner cities and has condemned generations to lives of poverty and abuse.
Illegal drugs due to the vast amount of money generated, has also had a strong influence on American involvement in foreign affairs. A great deal of talk about this country’s relationship with Pakistan and Afghanistan focuses on terrorism, militant Islam and the political/military tension in the area. But the elephant in the middle of the room that rarely gets discussed is; Afghanistan’s position as the large producer of opium in the world, and due to its landlocked position, Pakistan’s role in the export and distribution of the opium and its derivative heroin. This is a business that runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars, very few of it going to the opium poppy farmers of Afghanistan. The big bucks are in the transport and sale on the international market, and the governments and military of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are the pivotal players in that game. Afghanistan’s President Karzai’s brother was killed recently, because he (along with his brother) was the largest opium dealer in the country. The Pakistan military have a cozy relationship with terrorist networks working on both sides of the Afghani-Pakistan border, not primarily based on shared religious or political convictions; but because they are integral to transportation of the opium and heroin into Pakistan for shipment worldwide. The political troubles in that neck of the woods, including the U.S.’s, is significantly connected to the international trade in opium as an illegal and thus highly profitable commodity.
Most of the currently illegal drugs are in themselves not very difficult or expensive to grow, harvest or even process and ship. It is their illegality that drives the price as high as they become for the end user. The kick-backs, payoff, bribes necessary because of the drugs illegal nature, coupled with the criminality created by the profitability is the real problem created by the illegality of the drugs. The huge price that results from the illegality of drugs also makes them more dangerous and sometimes deadly for the ultimate user on the street. Drugs are often cut with various substances that have the properties of enhancing the “high” and/or disguising that they have been cut or “stepped on”. This can lead to emergency room trips and even fatal results for the end users. If illegal drugs were grown and marketed like any other crop they would be dirt cheap and a lot safer.
The total cost to American society of the illegal drug trade is staggering. The cost in terms of; local, state, and Federal law enforcement agency time and cost; judicial court time and money; incarceration, and more, runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars. And the results have been almost entirely unsuccessful. Our law enforcement resources are being wasted fighting a lost war; when they could be put to better use and/or the cost reduced. Our courts are jammed with mainly user or small dealer drug cases which are mostly plea bargained, but none the less waste value time, human resources and money. Our prisons are nothing more than warehouses and schools for criminals at huge public expense. More than half the prison population is there for low end drug related crime. Hundreds of thousands of America’s youth population, mostly native born and immigrant minorities, are involved in gangs doing drug related crime and killing each other as well as innocent citizens. The toll in human lives lost and wasted may be the greatest cost of the real war over illegal drugs.
At the root of all of the costs to our society is the fact that these drugs are illegal. If they were handled as a medical and health issue; almost all the criminality and the many costs associated with that criminality would be eliminated. If drugs were de-criminalized; they could be grown domestically and extremely cheaply. The cost of getting drugs to end users in a safe quasi-medical environment would be a small fraction of what is now spent to prevent drug use. If drugs were virtually given away as a medical necessity, in a place that had the most up to date information and assistance for use cessation and rehabilitation; all the profit and “glamour” would be eliminated from the drug use scene. This would all help in lowering both the use and start-up rate of drug involvement.
Very few people would start to shoot smack just because they could get it free at a clinic. Current users could get it without having to steal the money needed or deal with criminals. Some could function in society as addicts and many would attempt to get off it without fear of going to jail and because of the easier and better treatment options. Cocaine would lose almost all it cache when the physically destructive aspects are more well known and its exclusivity non-existent. Marijuana would not have to go through the dog and pony show of the “medical marijuana” scam and would be as cheap as the weed that it is. Most people would grow their own or join a Co-op. It would still be made known for the health hazard that it is; because it’s smoking. Even “party drugs” would be a lot safer and a lot less used if the whole truth about their less than healthful mood altering qualities were made well known. Making public the information about the truth of drug use is the best and most cost effective way of reducing the number of drug users.
The de-criminalization of drugs would have a lot of other positive payback too. Our borders would see no more drug traffic; a significant savings of resources which could then be applied to the illegal human trafficking plaguing this country. Our involvement and conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan would be lessened considerably. The money we now spend on military aid to Mexico, the Middle East, Columbia and many other countries for drug interdiction could either be saved or some it put toward humanitarian aid.
The one mistake we can’t make if we want to lower the impact drug use has on our society is to fall into the trap of using the drug addiction some people will still have, as an opportunity to generate revenue through a “sin” tax on currently illegal drugs. That will drive the prices up and create the opportunity for an illegal black market, which is what we have now; replete with all the problems that go with it. We must keep in mind it is a medical matter. We should no more make drug use a “sin” and subject to a tax and the pejorative aspects associated with any sin; then we should charge a sin tax on insulin for diabetics and condemn their eating of doughnuts as a moral weakness. An addiction is a medical condition and should be treated as no more and no less. That will make people less likely to start drug use, more likely to want to end their use and remove all the costly and dangerous activities now part of drug addiction due to its criminality.
There are, of course, some vested interests that will stand to lose economically if we take a sensible, practical and humane approach to drug de-criminalization. Anytime society makes an intelligent change for the better, those that were taking advantages of a societal problem for their own gain will try to fight to keep their “business” alive and profitable. They might try misleading or scare information distribution. They might use their influence with politicians to subvert a positive approach to the way in which we handle drug addiction. However, we have consistently gone forward making society better in spite of the obstacles the greedy or stupid have tried to put in the way. A 21st century, common sense, workable, recasting of our drug policy toward de-criminalization will ultimately be the best thing for virtually all Americans. And isn’t that what we really want and really should be fighting for?
