Posted on 06/12/2011 5:07:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
"If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us," President Richard Nixon told Congress in a special message on June 17, 1971, which generally is credited as the day the "war on drugs" began.
Actually, Nixon didn't use the term "war on drugs" in the address. He used it later. And while Nixon talked tough about going after drug traffickers, he emphasized that rehabilitation would be a priority as he dedicated the lion's share -- $105 million of $155 million in new anti-drug funding -- "solely for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug-addicted individuals."
Some 40 years later, there are only losers in the drug war. Drug use is up; 118 million Americans have used illegal drugs, and the cost of prosecuting the drug war and offenders continues to mount.
On Friday, various anti-drug war groups will be holding vigils in Washington, San Francisco and other cities to remember the drug war's many victims.
"The war you plan is not necessarily the war you end up fighting," noted Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.
Sterling should know. As a congressional aide, he helped write the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which featured draconian federal mandatory minimum sentences.
Sterling will be at the vigil Friday in Washington's Lafayette Square.
This column is not to pay homage to drug use. Drug abuse was responsible for the death of 38,371 Americans in 2007, according to White House statistics. In 2009, 10.5 million Americans reported they had driven under the influence of illicit drugs. That's scary.
Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, and it doesn't work for drugs. As Daniel Okrent wrote in his book "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition," "In almost every respect imaginable, Prohibition was a failure. It encouraged criminality and institutionalized hypocrisy. It deprived the government of revenue, stripped the gears of the political system, and proposed profound limitations on individual rights."
I'll go down the list.
Encouraged criminality: The Department of Justice reported that in 2009, "midlevel and retail drug distribution in the United States was dominated by more than 900,000 criminally active gang members" representing more than 20,000 U.S. gangs.
Institutional hypocrisy: President Obama has admitted to using illegal drugs, President George W. Bush coyly would not say and President Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale. A drug conviction could have curtailed their careers, yet all three presidents were drug warriors in the White House.
Deprived revenue: Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated in 2008 that legalizing drugs could save federal, state and local governments $44 billion per year, while taxing drugs could yield an added $33 billion.
Limiting individual rights: Allow me to quote Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore narcotics cops and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "President Obama needs to think about where he would be right now had he been caught with drugs as a young black man. It's probably not in the Oval Office, so why does he insist on ramping up a drug war that needlessly churns other young black men through the criminal justice system?" LEAP will release a report this week that addresses Franklin's concerns.
On the state level, the drug war has begun to wind down. In 2000, Californians passed Proposition 36, which mandates probation and treatment for those charged with drug possession. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law that made possession of small amounts of marijuana an infraction; 13 other states have similar laws.
As Sterling put it, "The states are no longer drinking the Kool-Aid from Washington on drug policy."
As for Washington: "Washington is never going to be the leader on this. They don't lead public opinion. They follow public opinion."
I agree
It’s not just the war on drugs that we should be concerned with.
The drugs are coming thru our borders along with many bad people and who knows what else.
close the borders and we shut down on a lot of our problems.
I, for one, don't want to have to walk by a bunch of loaded up junkies or pot heads when I shop at the local mall.
We could win the War on Drugs in six months.
Shut down the Mexican border.
But there’s no money to be made in that.
And you better believe it, that’s why a forty year useless war is still being fought.
PRay your house isn’t the mistaken address for the next testosterone laden SWAT team no-knock warrant.
The headlines in the 60’s and seventies were just like those today...
“Biggest drug bust ever!”
And bill Bennet is still touting the WOD and his “guests” are directors and owners of drug treatment centers that are part of this “Government” Drug Economy. If he had any of the morality he so touts, he would say, “I was wrong. this is a failure at best, we need a new policy.”
In 1870 there were no drug laws in America and there were no overwhelming drug problems. Nobody should need to be Albert Einstein to figure that one out.
“I, for one, don’t want to have to walk by a bunch of loaded up junkies or pot heads when I shop at the local mall.”
I do agree with you, however why do you think the local mall would look different than it does today—they are filled with loaded up junkies and pot heads!
I agree...We can stiffen the laws on public disorderly conduct ,etc. How about house arrest and madatory outpatient treatment after a brief detox stint..that is not nearly as expensive as putting them in the “govt” prison economy.
there are many ways to deal with this that are more effective and way less costly to the taxpayor. but we have to begin the discussion on HOW to deal with the problem ( including the border) ONCE we accept the premise the WOD is NOT working.
A better solution would be to make drug use unacceptable socially at all levels. Maybe an advertising campaign that stresses the point that recreational users are paying money to drug cartels who murder and enslave people. Money also goes to terrorists to use against America. Everyone who uses illegal drugs is guilty of funding these people.
Someone will want to come back and say, “if we legalize drugs, then these bad people will be out of the picture and replaced by legitimate companies.”
I would reply that you can just look back at how the British companies behaved when making and selling drugs was illegal in England, but was legal in India and China.
I believe that this country needs to seriously reset its moral compass. It would resolve a ton of issues that we're facing right now. If communities were tighter knit, drug use would be unacceptable to the community as a whole and the problem would resolve itself, regardless of whether drugs were legal or illegal.
“In 1870 there were no drug laws in America and there were no overwhelming drug problems. Nobody should need to be Albert Einstein to figure that one out”
There wasn’t any drug problem in the 40s and 50s either, it was the stinking baby boomers that caused the whole problem!
Make drug use a capitol offense and the problem goes away.
That's true, but correlation does not prove causation. I believe that the difference between the morality of the country in 1870 and of the country today is a much bigger factor as to why there are drug problems today.
The morality problem has created the need to make drugs illegal. If we can fix the morality problem, then I'm all in favor of going in the direction of freedom on this one.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - John Adams
California is a dealer’s paradise. It’s like “here try this stuff it’s backed by the state.”If by chance you get hooked-the state pays to get you off it. And you will not go to jail. It is automatic probation if they catch you with the chit.
It’s OK with me to legalize them but not a single penny of government money to be spent on rehab. If you want freedom, you can have it.
“In 1870 there were no drug laws in America and there were no overwhelming drug problems. Nobody should need to be Albert Einstein to figure that one out.”
Not true - cocaine and morphine dependency were HUGE problems in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Which is why drug laws were passed.
Iran had few drug laws until quite recently. It’s estimated that, in the 1950s, 20 percent of the population were addicted to opium.
What will the drug gangs do if their source of income is cut off? I’ll tell you: find even more noxious ways to earn a living.
Unless you want to return to an 18th century level of society, without mechanization, like the Amish, the war on drugs must continue.
It’s like weeding a garden. Yeah, the weeds grow back - but if you don’t weed, you don’t have a garden.
That said, we need to be mindful of civil liberties. We also need to get the best bang for our buck - decriminalizing - or even legalizing - pot might make sense. But crack, coke, meth, heroin? Our society won’t survive if their use is widespread.
War on Poverty - FAIL
War on Drugs - FAIL
War on Terror - Success so far Thank God and our military(unless lefties get their way)
I think that's a great deal. If only you could keep up your end of it.
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