Just Say No...one big Charlie Foxtrot

The United States faces a difficult challenge when it comes to drug usage among Americans. The U.S. spends roughly the same amount of money fighting the “War on Drugs” as it citizenry does buying drugs. Something has to change.

I believe that drug use can be reduced in American. I also believe that a continuation of America’s current “War on Drugs” will not do it. Instead, the current policies have only helped increase drug usage and foster violence across the country. In California, teenage tobacco use was cut in half with a straightforward ad campaign that was financed by a tax on cigarettes. Not a shot was fired, but the battle was won.

One of the few smart programs in the “drug war,” after school programs, is about to be shot apart by the Bush White House and conservative congressman. After school programs are the only proven mean of reducing youth drug abuse, youth pregnancy, and juvenile criminal behavior. President Bush is moving to cut funding for these programs by nearly half. "Compassionate Conservatism" indeed.

The supporters of the “War on Drugs,” both conservative and liberal, have only one solution to this debacle, more money for law enforcement, more people, more power, more prisons, with no end in sight. They promised us “a drug-free America by 1995,” and instead we see new and more exotic and dangerous drugs constantly being added to the mix.

I know that proponents of the “Drug War” will say that I am pro-drugs or that I’m soft on crime. I am not. I understand the damage done by drug addiction, including alcohol. I know the wasted resources and collateral damage of the past two decades has not promoted a safe society. It is unconscionable that only one bed exists for every ten people who apply for drug treatment and rehabilitation. America’s priorities and America’s resources are being put in the wrong place. The primary job of law enforcement should be protecting our nation and its citizens, not protecting people from themselves.

The destruction of our right to privacy and property promoted by the “Drug War” is inconsistent with the free society we claim to cherish. Making private or self-destructive behavior illegal is not acceptable in a free nation.

Like I’ve said in previous blog, the racism evident in the “Drug War” and the clearly preferential treatment for offenders with political, social and economic connections, undermine our concept of a just society. Draconian (I hope that term is not to “book learned”) prison sentences that are higher than those for violent crimes, like murder and rape, destroy respect for our laws. The corruption in our criminal justice system spawned by the $400 billion-a-year drug black market could be ended with the stroke of a pen.

Also would be the massive devastation we have brought to other countries. In Colombia alone we send billions of dollars of military aid and spray hundreds of thousands of acres of populated land with dangerous herbicides. Columbia is a country with nearly a million displaced people, people displaced by American policy. Each military campaign or spraying operation is like a squeezing a balloon, production of drugs there merely shifts to another site or goes into a temporary hiatus.

Addiction to drugs is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system. American should develop an intelligent drug policy based on the experience of drug experts from around the world. Allowing doctors to treat drug addiction humanely and intelligently, would allow the United States to quickly eliminate most of the black market and much of the damage to a safe, free, and just America.

It is time for an honest dialogue on the issue of drugs and drug addiction. It is time to stop the documented lies, half-truths, and propaganda that got us into this mess in the first place. It is time to face the facts.