Pubdate: Sun, 10 Sep 2000
Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Santa Barbara News-Press
Contact:  P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA 93102
Website: http://www.newspress.com/
Author: Randy Alcorn

RIGHT ON TARGET

The War On Drugs Is So Much More

Last week President Clinton delivered a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package to
Colombia for the purpose of escalating the war on drugs. His quick denial
that this aid wasn't comparable to the Vietnam fiasco nor was it "Yankee
imperialism," was about as credible as his denial that he never inhaled
marijuana smoke.

The irony of a U.S. president who admits to being in possession of a banned
drug, of actually sucking its smoke to the threshold of his lungs, now
pontificating about the necessity of continuing the so-called war on drugs,
even if it means supporting foreign governments that are in violation of our
own human rights standards, is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of our
policy on this issue of drugs.

The war on drugs is so much more. It is a war on common sense, a war on
individual rights, a war on justice, a war on third-world peasants, but as a
war on drugs it is woefully unsuccessful. Typically we judge anyone who
keeps repeating the same self-destructive behavior as either mentally
disturbed or mentally deficient. As a political nation then, we must be
either psychotics or morons.

After our clearly decisive failure to outlaw alcohol in the early part of
the 20th century, you would think we would have learned the profound folly
of trying to eliminate something that so many of our citizens want so badly
some will even kill for it. The gang wars and corruption resulting from
banning booze pale in comparison to the death and corruption spawned by
keeping some drugs illegal.

In one respect Clinton may be right, the war on drugs isn't like the Vietnam
fiasco. In that war, we came to grips with the error of our policy and the
futility of pursuing it, and after 10 long years we withdrew. But the war on
drugs, arguably even more futile and unjustified than the war in Vietnam, is
relentlessly pursued by one U.S. administration after another, year after
year, decade after decade. During the eight years of the Reagan presidency
we spent about $22 billion on it. That amount escalated to $45 billion in
the four Bush years. Currently, we spend over $18 billion per year just at
the federal level to pursue the futile war on drugs. No matter who is in
office, the stupidity continues. Certainly, there are better things to spend
our money on.

Our prisons are crowded with drug offenders. Drug offenders comprise nearly
60 percent of the federal prison population. Nearly three and a half million
Americans have been arrested just on marijuana charges alone during the last
seven years. Neighborhoods across our country are war zones in which
competing drug dealers fight over the market. Desperate addicts, needing to
find money to support their habit, steal and rob to pay the high street
price of illegal drugs.

The war on drugs has become a war on our constitutional rights. There have
been many incidents reported over the years where innocent people have had
their homes stormed, their property confiscated, even their lives lost.
Police killed an old man in Ventura County some years ago when they stormed
his farm after mistaking his corn crop for marijuana. A Texas man had all of
his cash confiscated by drug agents at a Texas airport only because the
amount of cash was large and, therefore, made him a suspected drug dealer.
The man was never arrested or ever convicted of any drug-related crime. Our
government has abrogated our most basic constitutional rights in its zealous
pursuit of this insane war on drugs. If this is the cure, it is worse than
the disease. It took a constitutional amendment to ban booze, but merely a
stroke of the presidential pen to make criminals of millions of Americans
who choose to use certain drugs.

Illegal drugs won't go away until people stop wanting to use them -- and too
many people choose to use them. Citizens rich and poor and of all races and
walks of life have used and continue to use illegal drugs, which should be
their right as free citizens.

When drug use is harmful, it is typically harmful only to the person who
chooses to engage in it. Most of the harm surrounding drugs in this country
comes from the attendant violence, theft and corruption that keeping them
illegal produces. Our tax money would be more wisely and effectively spent
on educating our citizens about the health dangers of drugs, rather than
funding this idiotic war on drugs. "Just say no" is more effective than
another marijuana smoker serving five to 10 in prison. Besides, inmates can
still get drugs in prison.

If as a nation we were sincerely dedicated to eradicating all dangerous
substances that a human might ever ingest, the list of banned substances
would be long, indeed. Alcohol is legal and yet many would argue that it is
more deleterious than marijuana. Cholesterol probably kills more people than
cocaine. Should the police be rounding up all the addicts checking in to the
Betty Ford Clinic and other addiction treatment centers across the country?

Finally, there is a rogue nation that produces and exports a drug so
addictive that people will continue to ingest it even after it has eaten
away their bodies, and threatens them with imminent death. Unlike most other
drugs, its use actually threatens the health of non-users. Up until recently
this nation's government even subsidized its farmers who grow this drug.
Huge, powerful organizations sanctioned by this government export this drug
to the entire world with impunity. They insidiously entice children and
teen-agers to use this drug. Yet, there are no armed helicopters invading
the fields where this drug is grown. There are no aid packages from
afflicted nations to further a war on this drug and stop its export.

America, probably the greatest exporter of tobacco in the world, piously
declares war on coca leaves, poppies and cannabis in Colombia and elsewhere;
what shameful hypocrisy.

The real reason that the war on drugs continues is that both sides want it
to continue for the money it generates. Huge budgets -- your tax dollars at
work -- and confiscated property for the government bureaucrats and police,
and high prices and monopolies for the drug purveyors. It will never be won
because neither side really wants it to end. While we still have some
democracy left, we citizens must end it, just as we did the Vietnam war,
just as we did with alcohol prohibition. The prohibition against drugs
should be repealed. Stop the war!
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