Pubdate: Fri, 23 May 2003
Source: Potomac News (VA)
Copyright: 2003 Potomac News.
Contact:  http://www.potomacnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2924
Author: James Simpson, Potomac News

WAR ON DRUGS HAS ERODED PERSONAL FREEDOMS

We have a HUGE drug problem in this country. Supervisor Mary Hill should be 
intimately aware of it by now, but many Republicans who have not had such 
personal experience still approach the issue from a limited perspective.

The problem I am referring to isn't drug abuse; it's how our society 
addresses :"illegal" drug use. We have been fighting the so-called "war on 
drugs" for over 30 years, yet the war isn't against drugs, it's against people.

People take drugs primarily for one of two reasons. Either they need them 
for physical relief of some sort or they have emotional troubles. As a 
nation we address the former through the medical establishment and the 
latter through the justice system. However, those who take drugs due to 
emotional or psychological problems do not benefit from incarceration.

Although what drugs one uses, for any reason, should be an individual's 
free choice and no one else's, our country has arbitrarily decided what 
drugs may be unreservedly consumed (ie: acetaminophen), what drugs are to 
be controlled (ie: codeine), and what drugs should be outlawed (ie: 
marijuana). Most of the drug problems we face in society today stem from 
those in the "outlawed" category.

Like the drug problems of today, the nation faced a similar situation in 
the early 1900s. In 1919 the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting 
"manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." Are there 
shoot-outs over black market sales of expensive booze? Why not? Because our 
nation realized that the Eighteenth Amendment was a horrendous failure and 
repealed it 14 years later, in 1933.

Even though the repeal of prohibition significantly reduced the murder 
rate, the damage was done. Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 
1934. According to the BATF, "National dismay over the weaponry wielded so 
conspicuously by organized crime during Prohibition led to passage in 1934 
of the National Firearms Act, followed in four years by the Federal 
Firearms Act."

Unfortunately those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 
The "drug war" has done more than all other causes combined to infringe 
upon our Second Amendment rights. Those who are in favor of the right to 
keep and bear arms should take heed -- the enormous number of restrictions 
placed on gun ownership these days is due entirely to our war on drugs 
because most of the gun crimes committed these days are related to drug use 
and trafficking.

It is through a vicious sequence of events that gun control laws, such as 
the "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994" are enacted. It 
goes like this; the tighter the restrictions on drugs, the more expensive 
they become. The more expensive they are the more violence is committed to 
supply and acquire them. The more violence that occurs the greater the call 
for gun control.

While the rest of the world recognizes that increasingly harsh penalties 
have not solved their drug problems, we forge ahead in the same failed 
direction.

When the problem persists, and current gun control laws don't stop it, 
those who fear guns, and don't mind trampling the Constitution, are all too 
happy to propose additional restrictions on gun ownership and our 
constitutional rights.

The collateral damage in this war has been the withholding of benefits 
derived from plants such as marijuana from those who could truly benefit 
from them, such as: glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and cancer patients.

The fact that hemp so closely resembles marijuana, and therefore is also 
outlawed, means that we have lost an excellent source of paper pulp, 
omega-3 fatty acids and a renewable alternative to oil. Mandatory 
sentencing laws have even allowed violent criminals (those incarcerated for 
rape, assault, etc.) to be released early due to the lack of adequate space 
in prisons.

But these facts don't matter to our "compassionate conservatives." As long 
as they can keep deceiving citizens with public service ads that mislead, 
they feel justified.

While the rest of the civilized world has recognized that people have had 
addictions for thousands of years -- and that events in our turbulent, fast 
paced world are not making it easier for people with emotional problems -- 
they have taken steps to decriminalize drugs.

As long as we continue to address drug abuse as a war, and not face it as a 
health care issue, we will not make things better for our country or those 
suffering from drug abuse. We will, however, continue to suffer from its 
negative consequences.

As a Christian Libertarian I am greatly concerned for individuals who have 
an addiction to drugs, and I can't help but wonder why Republicans and 
Democrats feel that the best answer to the drug problem is a war against 
those who are suffering.
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MAP posted-by: Beth