Beyond the fact that I, like nearly all of us, have a few friends and family members who have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the War on Drugs, I have no vested interest in this issue. I do not alter my consciousness with recreational drugs of any kind. I don’t take advantage of the government-sanctioned methods for getting high by consuming alcohol or nicotine or mood-altering prescription drugs. Adding more choices to the range of options for getting high, will not tempt me at all. I’m not interested in “getting high.” I am quite content to enjoy the blessings of life without chemical assistance.
I wish more of my fellow Americans felt the same way. I don’t encourage or condone drug use, but I would like to see this senseless and ineffective war come to an end. If we consider the full range of drugs, both legal and illegal, consumed by Americans on a regular basis, an amazingly high percentage of Americans are unable or unwilling to face life without medication of some sort.
If we implement a successful exit strategy for the War on Drugs, perhaps we could shift some of the resources we save to figuring out exactly what it is about modern life that leaves so many members of our society feeling the need to use and abuse drugs and to offer expanded treatment options for those who would like to escape from the grip of drug dependency.
Article comments
1 - malcolm kyle
Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of incompetence, corruption and human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.
Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us.
Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation.
By its very nature, prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.
Many of us have now, finally, wised up to the fact that the best avenue towards realistically dealing with drug use and addiction is through proper regulation which is what we already do with alcohol & tobacco, clearly two of our most dangerous mood altering substances. But for those of you whose ignorant and irrational minds traverse a fantasy plane of existence, you will no doubt remain sorely upset with any type of solution that does not seem to lead to the absurd and unattainable utopia of a drug free society.
There is an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. If you are not capable of understanding this connection then maybe you're using something far stronger than the rest of us. Anybody 'halfway bright', and who's not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem, it is our refusal to allow legal businesses to meet that demand.
No amount of money, police powers, weaponry, diminution of rights and liberties, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safer, only an end to prohibition can do that. How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?
If you still support the kool aid mass suicide cult of prohibition, and erroneously believe that you can win a war without logic and practical solutions, then prepare yourself for even more death, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, unemployment, foreclosed homes, and the complete loss of the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.
"A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
Abraham Lincoln
The only thing prohibition successfully does is prohibit regulation & taxation while turning even our schools and prisons into black markets for drugs. Regulation would mean the opposite!
2 - Elvira Black
Very funny stuff. Is this a satire?
There is not enough room in the jails to lock up every user. Plus, prohibition didn't work for alchol, which is arguably more potentially dangerous than marijuana, which has medicinal uses.
I predict that more and more states will legtalize medical marijuana, and eventually the Supreme Court may decriminalize its use.
It is also worth noting that in Amsterdam, where pot shops abound, the governement taxes the shops though technically they are illegal. The majority of users are tourists.
Simply because you are a teetotaler, it is unrealistic to think that you can stop people from altering their state of consciousness.
Legalizing weed and taxing it, as we do liquor, would help the economy substantially as well.
We are in thrall to the drug industry, which now considers us consumers who can ask their doctor for pills for anything from insomnia to depression to erectile dysfunction. Consider the warnings which the commercials contain, which can include, well, death. Countless lawsuits have been brought against the major drug companies, which make enormous profit.
Thus, the war on drugs might include a rethinking of our dependence on prescription drugs and the active commercialization for an industry which grosses billions of dollars in profits.
3 - Cannonshop
Civil disobedience won't do it-getting the right people to run for office, and then getting them to WIN, will.
unfortunately, the Drug War is a huge employer-on both sides of the criminal divide, and unlike prohibition of alcohol, the prohibition directed at narcotics is internationally viewed as legitimate (more or less), meaning there's really no pressure on Pols to change things. (Particularly democrat Pols,who care more about what the International Community thinks, than what their own constituents do.)