Maybe another approach is called for. It's one that an increasing number of Americans support. Not yet a majority, but a substantial and growing minority--42 percent with 7 percent undecided. It's a common sense answer to a problem that's not--not ever, that is, never--going away. Legalize marijuana. That one drug alone is 65 to 70 percent of the Mexican drug trade.
But a good case can be made for legalizing all illicit drugs. With the slaughter going on just south of the border, you're going to be seeing more and more articles like this one by Glen Greenwald about the whole war on drugs question. This piece talks about Portugal, of all places, and how the land of Vasco de Gama has decided to decriminalize drugs, all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. The result?
Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.
What a concept! Stop wasting billions of dollars on something that does not work. Stop making criminals of normal people. Stop generating billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and feeding the horrendous violence in Mexico. The person who wrote this to the U.S. News and World Report survey has it right:
If we were a free society, people would be allowed to use any drug they wanted. If we were a compassionate society, we would put people with drug problems in rehab, not in prison. But we are neither a free nor a compassionate society. We are a moralistic one. So our response to the problem is predictably stupid.
Update 1: Strapped sorely for cash the city of Philadelphia might be mulling marijuana legalization.
3 comments:
Something like 15 years ago, I saw a documentary on the UK's attempt at legalizating drugs, controling the distribution, seeing that addicts were on record and did not do things which added to the health costs of the nation, etc. etc.
I was astounded, and I became an immediate proponent.
When we speak of sending oil money out of the country, we never stop and think of the transfer of money to the worst examples of humanity: drug lords.
Now, how deep are the people who run this country in cahoots with the billions from the drug trade?
Don't know, but the British Empire was funded on slavery and opium for a long while.
You know, my friend, if they'd put us in charge, we might be able to effect some real change. As you know, I'm distressed at some of what I regard as timidity on Obama's part. I don't believe that dilly-dallying is really going to help matters substantially.
Just as one example, I cringe at whatever health care solution is going to be devised because hospitals and insurance companies are still going to be the biggest players. It's perfectly obvious that single-payer system is the only way to go. That's certainly not what we're going to get.
We're entering a new world. It's not going to look like the old one; only problem is most people don't know this yet.
On second thought, we'd never get anything done running the country because we'd be assassinated straightaway.
Friend...I hesitate to tell you this, but they will assasinate us whether we are put in charge or not.
But, you know, it would have been so boring to continue the old life under the American Empire.
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