Short, Sweet and Sour

 

This piece will Short – which is Sweet – but you may find the message Sour.

The War on Drugs is an unquestionable failure. Not unlike the America’s other never-ending wars. Also horribly expensive, wasteful, and tragic. Only Government itself has benefited by expanding its power, unconstitutionally overreaching into private lives and other countries.

If Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness has any value to Americans anymore, ending this immoral, illegal, “War” is the only solution to the continuing suffering, damage and death that it produces.

An increasing number of States legalizing marijuana is a good start. Not only has it eliminated freedom robing arrests for the petty crime of possessing or smoking a common weed, it has proven the world hasn’t come to an end as a result, part of the fear porn pushed by government’s early propaganda.

Leaving the compelling arguments of the 9th and 10th Amendments aside, the logic of Free Will, Free Choice and Individual Responsibility should have terminated the political rationalization for continuing the ‘War” and honored as elements of Freedom rather than bastardized by government prejudice and lust for power. While Richard Nixon thought drug abuse was “public enemy #1” even Presidents don’t have the authority to project their prejudices on the people who elected him. (Note: Nixon’s real reasons for his “war on drugs’ was revealed in a 1994 interview with John Erlichman here.)

The asininity of continuing the “War” is broadcast regularly on the Evening News, San Francisco the prime example, other metro areas aren’t far behind. Fentanyl, cocaine and other substances flow across the Southern border with the impunity of miniscule interdiction despite the DEA’s $42 billion dollar budget.

News anchors intone “109,680 people died as the fentanyl crisis continued to deepen.” The on-going effort by the MSM and Government agencies is to imply the drug is responsible for the cause of the crisis and deaths. At best, this is factually untrue; at worst, an intentional lie. Fentanyl doesn’t kill anyone until it is ingested by an individual making the choice to do so. No drug has some mysic power to compel someone to take it. Unless physically forced by some outside source (gang member, abusive friend, peer pressure), every addict took the first hit, toke, pill, injection voluntarily, out of free will. The addiction came later.

Tragic? Yes. Waste of life? Yes. What to do? More laws?No. Greater enforcement? No. Stiffer penalites? No. All of those ‘solutions’ tried and failed ad nauseam. Drugs are more easily available than ever. Individuals choose to take them for a multitude of reasons the cops and courts haven’t figured out and, in those rare cases when motives were discovered, it was either too late (death) or ineffective (recidivism). The “War” continues.

Solution: Make them legal. All of them. No penalties. No fines. Those inclined to take drugs are going to take drugs. The streets of San Francisco prove that. Interdiction, free syringes, vending machines, free meals, housing – fail. Regardless of penalties, the addiction is stronger than the fear of incarceration. Regardless, drugs are readily available in prison. So there’s that.

How bad could it be? Bad – in the short term. But once legal, the attraction falls. One legal, the price falls. Once legal, the cartels and gangs are defunded, disincentivized and disbanded.

Is that the end of it? Could be - with some loose ends to fix. 

Work for you? No?

The reasons why the principles, history, logic of ending the ‘War on Drugs’ don’t immediately appeal to some cannot be known and would contradict the promise of Short, Sweet and Sour above! However, if you’re inclined to explore the issue in greater detail, take a look at this 2016 piece. It’s not perfect, relies too much on government involvement, and too concerned about taxes. Aside from that, the examination of the current situation is informative.