Conferences like this one held recently in El Paso, Texas that examine current policy regarding the War on Drugs are important if there is to be any forward progress on the drug problem.
Whether we call it a war or not, the current and long term policies and procedures regarding drug abuse have been a failure in this country. In fact, there is no evidence that there has been any progress made at all, since the problem keeps getting worse. We most likely could have used these expenditures on other things and the scene would be the same.
The root of the problem is and has always been the customer. If there are no customers, there is no problem. “Consumer Education” or drug education ultimately is the answer – if there really is any concern to find an answer.
Our failed policies have helped to create 23 million drug abusers in this country. Whether they are abusing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, pot or prescription medications, these citizens are going to need help in the way of drug treatment.
There are solutions and they actually are not very difficult to implement. Perhaps the 1st step of any drug prevention program is to discover why it appears that we really don’t want a workable solution to the drug problem.
“The U.S.’s 40-year “War on Drugs” has been “probably the greatest public-policy failure of all time” according to former federal drug agent Terry Nelson, just one of the many drug-war critics who gathered at a recent conference in El Paso, Texas to discuss alternatives to the current approach to drug policy.
The San Antonio Express-News reported Sept. 28 that the conference was hosted by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and attracted academics, drug experts, journalists, and law-enforcement officials from the U.S. and Mexico. “After 40 years and all the money spent, with U.S. consumption as high as ever, people languishing in prison for possession of soft drugs like marijuana and the violence in Mexico worse than ever, it seems to me that something has to change,” said UTEP professor Kathleen Staudt.”
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2009/police-judges-among-drug-war.html
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights or to Cuba for political prisoners. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under banner of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as life is flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. Canadian Marc Emery sold seeds that enable American farmers to outcompete cartels with superior local herb. He’s being extradited to prison, for doing what government can’t do, reduce U.S. demand for Mexican.
Only on the authority of a clause about interstate commerce does the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Administration policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. America rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment. Father, forgive those who make it their business to know not what they do.
Nixon promised that the Schafer Commission would support the criminalization of his enemies, but it didn’t. No matter, the witch-hunt stays on. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. Denial of entheogen sacrament to any American, for mediation of communion with his or her maker, precludes his or her free exercise of religious liberty.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.