What’s Worse Than The War On Drugs?
What’s worse than the War On Drugs? Let me paint a realistic picture of a world where drugs are legalized in America. Let’s start by highlighting our Sec of State Clinton’s response in Mexico yesterday:
“We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”
She added: “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.
This pains me, but what she says is largely correct – America’s “insatiable demand” for drugs is creating a market so profitable that gangs of drug making entrepreneurs are willing to kill and be killed to reap the rewards. There are a few ways of dealing with this; lowering demand and increasing the risk of drug use. This is the focus of America’s War on Drugs. That battle has concentrated on punishing users (with the hope that the fear of punishment will over-ride the ecstasy of drugs) and jailing sellers (making the business less appealing). For the most part, the War on Drugs has lowered drug use in America, which is no small feat – we are a rich country with a population eager to enjoy itself. While it’s unrealistic to think drug use will ever be wiped out entirely, the best we can hope to do is stigmatize the practice and limit the availability of drugs.
But there are those that see the War on Drugs as a deliberate attack on individual liberties, and the criminalization of actions only injurious to the user as a foot in the door to limiting the freedom of all Americans to live as they choose. John Stossel, Libertarian crusader, ends a column of his bemoaning government raids of medial marijuana facilities saying:
Adults should be free to ingest whatever they want, knowing they are responsible for their actions.
Here’s some challenges to those who want to legalize drugs. Legalizing drug use will increase drug use. If government thinks it will allow drug sales with an eye to taxing it, how does it think it will catch the growers and sellers when it does such a miserable job of it now? What about regulation – considering that unlike alchohol where government assumed control over a drug already legal, if the FDA continues it’s mission to regulate everything we ingest, likely it will have to have that power over drugs as it now has over tobacco: doesn’t regulation involve a tacit recognition by the government of the danger inherent in the product? We’re not talking tobacco, which is a stimulant that over a long period of use, possibly decades, results in injury and death and liability for the manufacturer – we’re talking FDA approved cocaine. FDA approved heroin. FDA approved Exctasy. Don’t tell me you expect people to be held accountable for their decision to use the deadly FDA approved drug, government warnings on tobacco didn’t mean a thing in court.
Will society be safer if drugs are legalized? We already have drunk drivers that impose a level of risk for any family driving the roads, won’t adding drug users to the pool of impaired drivers increase that risk? Won’t adding drug users means increasing drug sellers, which in turn would result in increasing crime rates involving desperate users and opportunistic sellers? Will the easier availability of drugs mean our children will be tested earlier and more often by peer pressure and the seductions of the drug trade? If the desire to ‘change our state’ through alcohol or drugs is only natural, and we broaden the opportunities to do so under the guise of personal liberty – how do we convince our children to deny themselves when everything in society celebrates narcissism and glorifies rebellion? Isn’t it inevitable that we will have scores more lives ruined because of the temptation to experiment at an earlier age – like we did with cigarettes? Will drugs be as easy to quit as cigarettes for those who started smoking at 12 years old? Are cigarettes even comparable in damage to marijuana or cocaine?
Since our government has not taken seriously the integrity of our border with Mexico, we have little idea what is coming in and what is going out of this country. Increased drug use and its subsequent increase in demand will encourage more drug trade from Mexico, not lessen it. Drugs have been the most successful black market product since prohibition was overturned. There’s no reason to expect that FDA approved weed will be any cheaper than Mexican smoke, and since Americans have been quite adept at getting their smoke without government knowing about it, the demand for cheaper, more potent drugs from over the border will not diminish. Gangs on this side of the border and the other will still continue to try to control the market by any means necessary, and we shouldn’t expect drug lords or their customers to act in any other way.
The great allure of the medical marijuana movement is the removal of any risk in getting the product – for the casual user without a doctor’s note there’s always danger involved when out buying drugs. But the danger, and the stigma ought to remain if only because it marginalizes drug use. I agree that those dying or suffering excruciating pain ought to get whatever will help them, but it’s more than obvious that the medical marijuana movement is a step toward legalization for all. Why? Because we know that drug companies can easily make pills that contain what marijuana does to alleviate pain and inspire apetite, and such pills have the added benefit of sparing the smoker the danger of smoking weed. Anyone who has ever cleaned out a bong or a pipe can see the gooey, tar-like crap that clings to the walls. But it ain’t about health – it’s about getting high.
What’s worse than the War On Drugs? How about a nation already lacking in self-control unleashed to please itself in ways already proven devastating to individuals and the families that must watch them self destruct. Legalizers argue that alchohol is legal, does a lot of damage, but we still keep it legal – why not drugs? If they were talking about replacing alcohol with drugs, the argument might have some twisted logic, but what they’re arguing for is increasing the precentage of people enibriated in one way or another. There’s already enough damage being done. When your freedom to abuse yourself infringes on my freedom to live in a community safe from the influences of the drug trade, then it ought to be no question what gets priority.
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4 Responses to “What’s Worse Than The War On Drugs?”
March 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Where do people think terrorist organisations get their cash? Selling drugs to people who have it too easy;people with nothing better to do than sit on the sofa and get high; people who think they can deal for cash and get hooked themselves.
If there were no demand, the problem would be solved. I think demand for drugs is related to competition. If I have to get motivated to succeed because competition (for a qualification for example) is fierce, and if I don’t get that qualification I will not be able to buy food or pay rent, I am too busy to be messing around with drugs.
If someone, like the government, is there to pat me on the head and say, “don’t worry, Kristy, we’ll ensure you’re always comfortable”, then I never have a reason to leave my comfort zone.
Competition also sparks me, once I’ve achieved a particular goal, to carry on to the next level.
Competition has been taken out of schools and we have a generation of wasters getting high and talking shite as a career path.
Until that attitude is changed, we will continue as a nation to gobble up drugs from our enemies.
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
kris says:
Let’s not forget that for people that have it hard also find solace in drug use – look at our inner cities here in the US. Most people living there are sober and hard working – but many are also succumbing to drugs and then selling them to the very neighbors children they’ve grown up with. Too many justify what they’re doing by saying there are no jobs – but would they sign up to become hooded executioners of their neighbor’s children? No – but they’ll kill their hopes and stunt their abilities slowly by bringing poisons right to their doorsteps.
Legalizing drugs means aggregate increase in drug users and their enablers – and the violence that makes up the price users pay for the high…
March 28th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
One of the saddest things happening in the heartland is the sons and daughters of the pioneers selling meth.
Some could call it “hope” and the lack thereof – usually brought on by crushing debt, no/low paying jobs.
i still believe competition is key. If i had to do it all again, i’d learn a trade and run my own business rather than spend years at college.
kris´s last blog post..Islamists Are Revolting
March 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Nice post ! Legalization of drugs would be a disaster…just ask Sweden and the Netherlands.
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