Pubdate: Wed, 05 Dec 2007
Source: East Texas Review (Longview, TX)
Copyright: 2007 East Texas Review Newspaper
Contact: http://www.easttexasreview.com/contact.htm
Website: http://www.easttexasreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3575
Author: William A. Collins
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

DRUGS, THE OTHER STUPID WAR

Blacks with drugs, Do make me gloat; 'Cause once in jail, They'll never vote.

Every country relishes its own destructive obsessions. Japan, for 
example, craves whale meat; France tortures geese to improve the 
flavor of their livers; Zimbabwe and Myanmar just torture people; 
certain African nations genitally mutilate little girls to prevent 
them from later enjoying sex. Thoughtful, that. And Saudi Arabia 
doesn't let women drive, cleverly keeping them at home to do the work.

In this country we prohibit drugs. Just this year our governor vetoed 
a bill that would have allowed hopeless pain sufferers to smoke 
marijuana when all else fails. Still, even if she'd signed it, the 
feds could have come in and pinched patients, docs, growers, and 
anyone else actually involved in treatment.

But as ridiculous as this prohibition of pot for pain may seem, the 
prohibition of pot for pleasure is worse. It's much more 
discriminatory than the old prohibition of booze. That bummer was 
enforced by raiding speakeasies, generally frequented by whites. 
Saner heads eventually prevailed and Prohibition was sent to dry out 
in the archives.

Drug laws are more insidious; they aim purposely at blacks. Selective 
enforcement is targeted to minority neighborhoods, and long mandatory 
sentences are common. These make sure that non-whites populate our 
prisons out of all proportion to their percentage in the population. 
There are even heavily-used laws adding additional years in jail for 
drug possession merely because one was near a school, housing project 
and senior center. Guess who lives in those neighborhoods. One such 
alleged dealer in our town just had these Jim Crow charges thrown at 
him the other day. He's 19. By-bye, Baby.

The beauty of this system is that vast numbers of non-whites become 
felons, and felons can't vote. Not while in jail and often not for a 
long time thereafter. In some states, never. Since most of these 
"criminals" are poor, they harbor a natural tendency to vote 
Democratic on those rare occasions when they actually possess the 
franchise. Thus the continued existence of overbearing drug laws is 
the best thing to happen to the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan. 
Maybe Abraham Lincoln.

Consequently Republicans prosecute the War on Drugs with religious 
ferocity. Anyone proposing rational discussion is tagged as "soft on 
drugs," and these days, as "aiding terrorism." No epithet is off the 
table. The police are mired in the conflict too. Their departments 
collect forfeitures, often cars and cash, which were used in drug 
dealing. All this makes for a powerful integrated lobby. Not to 
mention the prison guards and prison builders.

Of course it's all stupid. Addicts are better treated as patients, 
just like alcoholics, rather than as crooks. Connecticut's and 
America's jails brim over with these mandatory sentences, often 
forcing some real bad guys to be released prematurely to make room. 
The cost in taxes is huge too. All this just so shameless politicians 
can stay in office by raising hysteria and suppressing the minority vote.

Opposing this mania, San Francisco, no stranger to addicts, is eyeing 
a new tack. Well, new at least in the U.S. Eight other countries do 
it already. The scheme is to offer the serious heroin addict a clean 
safe room and a clean safe needle. In Europe they even offer clean 
safe heroin. No cops, no HIV, no Hep-3, no charge, no questions; but 
medical care and treatment upon request.

You'll be astonished to learn that in such dens of iniquity overseas, 
crime is down, health is up, and drug usage has declined. Such a plan 
has little future in this country however. But a lot of those mangy 
addicts, when treated like people instead of maggots, tend to hike up 
their britches, find part time jobs, shoot up less often, and worst 
of all, vote. Not in our blessed country they won't, by God!
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