editorial comment paraphernalia could not have said it any better....

By Lenny Gibeault III
June 19, 2005

I have been reading a lot on the recent (growing, but still on the fringe) commentary on the abject failure of the US Drug War. I disagree with this notion, thought not for the reasons some might think. I believe that the Drug War has been highly successful--just not in removing drugs, or addiction, from our ailing society. The victory of the US government in the war on drugs, is both very real, and readily apparent, if you actually look at the issue from their perspective.

I believe that our government is neither stupid, nor inept. As a result, I believe that our elected officials have, in no way, forgotten about the unmitigated disaster that was thirteen years of alcohol prohibition. Namely, that as a practical matter, prohibition of a desired commodity does not, and CAN not succeed at eliminating drugs and/or drug use, deter drug use. In fact, it is more likely that prohibition actually increases drug use, not deter it. Look at the percentage of marijuana smokers in Amsterdam, where the weed is tolerated, compared to our own zero tolerance society. (Check out the figures at the US N.I.H. and N.I.M.H, along with the Netherlands own studies on the matter, if you don't believe me)

Nor can I accept that most politicians, and Drug War hawks, actually BELIEVE that prohibition lessens crime. It is patently obvious to anyone with half a functional brain, that the black market around drugs--including sales of illicit drugs, violence involved in illegal drug-debt collection, market-share violence(turf wars for prime selling spots, and control of a drug or drugs, it/themselves), and theft or robbery to support an addict's habit--is the cause of most of the violence and other crime usually put at the feet of the drugs themselves.

The politicians, and drug warriors, know all this as well as I do. They also see clearly, the base hypocrisy of policies that prohibit one(or other) mind-altering chemical, while another--Alcohol, as dangerous as ANY illicit drug--is available on almost every street corner, without even a prescription. If such are your criteria, then yes, obviously, the War on Drugs is a terrible failure. If you look at as our leaders do, it takes on a whole new light.

First, ninety years of scientifically unfounded propaganda have demonized drugs, and their users, to the point where even DISCUSSION of drug law reform is shouted down as un-American(although, I'm pretty sure that the point of a Democracy is that ANYTHING can be discussed, and that censorship is abhorrent, but then, that's just me. And the Founders of the Republic. Nobody much.). This has resulted in a society where the government has more power than they need, or are even allowed to have under a Constitution that puts strict limits on the authority of the federal government. The Drug War is considered so important to our national health and security, that the courts are willing to admit that the Constitution must be over-ruled, where drugs are involved(sounds eerily similar to the War on Terror, doesn't it?). The Feds can't see such toppling of Civil Rights, and concentration of power in their hands, as anything but a major success of the Drug War.

Also, we must not forget that in any War, winning the minds and hearts of the people are a strategic necessity. In this aspect of the War on Drugs, the Feds have been particularly adept. I blame the PR and advertising might of the Wall Street crowd, for this. The government uses propaganda and misinformation, combined with humanity's natural desire to be safe, to create a nationwide panic, based on an assumption that drugs, and NOT PROHIBITION of Drugs, are the greatest threat to our safety. Never-mind that before prohibition our teens had no access to the vast profits a black market provide, and not nearly the access to fire-arms that street gangs take for granted now. If safety of its citizens, and keeping criminals from getting stinking rich off of the drug trade, is the goal of the government's war on drugs, again, smashing success. The same goes for poisoning the gestalt mind of the American people against inanimate objects(drugs) now described as the incarnation of Satan(Including cigarettes, but alcohol, like GW Bush and the media, gets a free pass).

Another way the Drug War is successful, when you look at it from the Feds' point of view, is how global enforcement of this immoral pseudo-war has helped to maintain the US' world empire. For authoritarian, big government, to remain relevant, and necessary, they must always have an exterior threat. For most the twentieth century, that exterior threat( much like Orwell's Eurasia, or East Asia) was the Red Menace of communism, as represented by, primarily, the Soviet Union. These days, terrorists make a good external threat, tailor-made to keep big government big, and gain it even more authority, at the expense of the power of the individual state, weaker nations around the world, enthralled to the will of the US, and the government's own citizens, us. I'm sure I'm not alone in considering such truths to be a resounding victory, directly, or indirectly, attributable to the American Drug War.

Those of us who want change in the ridiculous, hypocritical drug policies of the US, must stop acting as though if only the politicians would see the truth, they'd act responsibly, and change the laws. I contend that, by and large, the elected officials know EXACTLY the pros and cons of the Drug War. They don't care. It's just another case of politicians putting what is best for the nation behind what is best to get them elected, or re-elected, among other selfish interests(I don't even want to get in to wealthy lobbyists and legalized graft).

In short, the only way to change the laws of the land, where drugs are involved, is to try and break years of brainwashing, and educate the American public. The people, the ones that can bring popular opinion and the threat of votes to bear on the politicians, need to know the objective truth as to the efficacy of the Drug War, and the plausibility, and comparative practicality and effectiveness of other possible solutions to the problem of drugs, of which there are many, from lessening penalties and abolishing mandatory minimum sentences, to outright legalization--and everything in between.

As long as even DISCUSSING whether or not prohibition is the best method to deal with drugs in our society, then, to THEM, the War on Drugs has already been won.

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