Question: what is the largest single change that would better U.S. foreign policy that can be achieved simply by an act of political will? Answer: abandonment of the "War" on Drugs. The global war on drugs can't be won. There is no argument. Why am I even posting this? This is silly. The U.N. has this unrealistic goal of achieving a drug free world. How did the alcohol free world go? Oh. The global war on drugs is modeled after America's (where drugs are freely available to anyone who wants them) punitive and moralistic policy. The United States (with less than 5% of the world's population) is first in the world in per capita incarceration (with 25% of the world's prisoners). Listening to America's ideas about prohibition is like listening to Carl Everett's position on dinosaurs. The government treats the usage of drugs like disease control. Politicians will spew garbage about how they must rid the world of drugs like they're a plague. What stupid logic. There is no popular demand for AIDS or small pox.
If the government really wants to go that route, why not accept addiction as what it really is: a health problem, not a criminal one? Most people that use drugs are just like the responsible alcohol users. Oooooh but it's immoral. Where do some people get off thinking there is some principal basis for discriminating against people solely based on what they put in their bodies, absent harm to others? People living in "Jesusland" (good song by NOFX by the way) think legalization will lead to huge increases in drug abuse. Ummmm drugs are pretty much readily available to those who want them now anyways. There's never been a drug free world and there never will be. These people believed in the U.N. General Assembly in 1998 when it committed to "eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of the coca bush, cannabis plant, and the opium poppy by 2008" and reducing demand. Today, global reproduction and consumption of those drugs are roughly the same; meanwhile, many producers have become more efficient, and heroin and cocaine have become purer and cheaper. The government probably spends close to $100 billion on these failed drug policies. Just think if the government used even a third of that to reduce drug related illness and addiction. Fatalities from overdoses would be less and the spread of infectious diseases by sharing syringes would be reduced. The government would rather stick to its "zero tolerance" policies.
I'm totally losing focus. I guess I'll wrap this up because I am getting bored. The problem isn't with drug users because most of them are responsible. The problems are with the government's zero tolerance policy which doesn't allow people with serious addictions to seek help without being indicted. Full legalization may not be realistic at the present time but partial is. The drug that stands the greatest chance of being legalized is cannabis. Hundreds of millions of people use it and most do not suffer harm or go on to use harder drugs. Drug users are not dangerous it's the organized crime markets that are riddled with corruption and violence that are. It would be much more pragmatic if the government would let the powerful alcohol and tobacco companies handle it. The government could regulate the drugs to prevent the diseases that come with unregulated products and eliminate the dangerous markets where one purchases drugs. Prohibition does nothing to stop the desire for drugs.
**I can provide sources. Have a problem with the facts? Email me.
Fin
5 comments:
I have to completely disagree with this ridiculous post and it starts with this comment: The problem isn't with drug users because most of them are responsible
Sure, you're friends your age who smoke weed are responsible at this age. But have you been around users who have been using heroin for years? or those addicted to coke? I have...(one of the ills of the family owning a restaurant), you are missing the point of the various DUI's, the leaving kids at home when you get high, the advancing of pay checks because you have to fill your veins of H, and so on and so forth.
While the war on drugs is futile in your mind, it does what it should, keep the cost of drugs high enough so that the access to these items are not easy enough for everyday people to abuse without some sort of sacrifice (e.g. advancing on your next paycheck, moving to weekly hotel because you have $$$ and etc). THe problem with legalizing drugs is that we as humans don't know when to stop --in general. When something makes you feel good, you keep doing it, if that has no consequence, than it's great, you keep doing it. You take that concept and apply it to something as harmfull as coke, meth, heroin, and etc and you have a LETHAL combination.
I don't really feel one way or another on weed, but all things beyond that should be illegal forever. Have you had a friend die because he took a cocaine, acid, and heroin cocktail? When you do, then tell me if drugs should be legal...it's scary phone call.
-puke
You're the shit.
Puke,
Did you read it? People will be able to help their serious addictions because they won't be thrown in jail after completion. No longer will they have to avoid it to avoid going to prison. Yeah, keep the cost of drugs high enough so people resort to using industrial materials. That's not more dangerous or anything. Have you ever knowns someone who was a victim of the vicious drug market?
puke
I think you need to re-assess your point of view.
While it is indeed sad that your friend died due to an OD, as much fo a cold bucket of water as this is going to be, he opted to do those drugs. Nobody is forced into the life of drugs, whether it be pot users or crack users. They jump into it voluntarily.
As for the war on drugs "doing what it should do", do you think that the ever-raising price of cigarettes has impeded smokers from buying them? You think the big warnings helped? If so, then you're pretty much lost on the notion of what an addiction is all about.
You could force the price of a bag of weed to go up to $200, people will still buy them. And worse yet, because of the hiking of prices in the illegal market, you're going to encourage criminal activity. You ever see what heroine and crack users resort to in order to get money for drugs?
By legalizinig drugs, you can acheive two types of changes:
1) You can establish the content of each drug, ensuring that said drugs are "tamed down" via the FDA. This would put an end to illegal growers, meth labs, etc...
2) Legalization = taxation. The moment drugs become legal, they are subject to taxes. More tax revenue means more money to help things like the national debt, building roads, schools, more money for grants towards medical research, etc...
Right now, because the drug war is "doing what it should do", all the money that's circulating from the drug trade doesn't get accounted for and the content is unchecked, making for more deaths and more ODs.
If puke was correct, Amsterdam should've gone to hell decades ago.
Yet I've been there and it's a nice fun place.
Puke you're ignorant of history and ignorant of the world.
You need to get out more, and I don't mean just out of the state.
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