The War on Drugs is a FAILURE

NOTE: This is a bit of a follow up of sorts, to THIS blog post from June. They are related, so it might be in your best interest to read that as well, if you wish.

So, I thought I'd talk about a war that really pisses me off, and also really saddens me, both because of how pointless and ineffective it is. The war to which I am referring is the so called “War on Drugs” that America has waged against its own populace. Of course, other countries have joined in on this thing, but America is the driving idiotic force. Now, I hate all wars, ideologically, but I do (regretfully) concur that, to some degree, and in some instances, war is, I suppose, justified (man I hate saying that!).

However, this ''War on Drugs'' is another story. Not only is it stupidly named (seriously, it's such a typically heavily politicized name), it's a hurtful, asinine, incredibly ineffective, damaging, propaganda laden waste of resources and human/non human life that has the exact opposite intended effect and should have been stopped before it even started. The fact that this ''war'' is still in effect is a testament to how stupid people can be. It's also a testament to how strong, psychologically, cognitive dissonance is as a phenomenon. I mean really, the evidence and the rhetoric could not be any more disparate. The rhetoric in the pro camp actually seems to ramp up as the failures mount. Dissonance, much?

So, what exactly has spurned the vitriol? What are the effects to which I have alluded? Why, magx, you ask, are you so angry about this? It's a good thing, is it not? Don't we want to clean up our streets and put the bad guys in jail?

Well, buckle your seatbelts, folks, because we're going for a ride.

So, let's have at it, shall we?

Recreational drugs have varying desirable effects. Namely, they alter your state of consciousness. Some amplify it, some attenuate it, some change it entirely in various ways for the duration of their effects. People have always, for various reasons, employed the use of substances to achieve these effects. Basically, there is, and always has been, demand. And anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics (perfectly describes my understanding of economics lol) understands that where there is demand, there will be supply. Recreational drugs are illegal. The supply has therefore been forced to come from enterprising people who will fly under the radar of the law in order to make money. And so you have crime that's directly resultant from the laws.

If you make it legal, there won't be much of a need for a black market. If you make it illegal, which it is, you have a black market. Again, there will ALWAYS be the supply. Even in maximum security prisons, drugs manage to get in. If there's demand, there's supply to meet that demand.

And so, with the drugs being illegal, the meeting of the demand with supply becomes a crime. And so, in effort to fight the crime that they created, the ol' American cowboys waged the so called “War on Drugs.” It is a war that has been waged for decades now with absolutely no end in sight, and billions of dollars spent along with thousands of lives lost and lives shattered. People being prosecuted and sitting in jail for possessing a drug for personal use, people arrested for growing their own plants for personal consumption, and people arrested for being high. Sure, they will point out, but we're also fighting against organized crime. Violent gangs fighting over territory, distribution, manufacture, and profits.

Huh. Interesting. And why do those things exist? Ah, I KNOW I KNOW!! Because drugs are illegal.

HOW FUCKING CIRCULAR!

Tell me, where else have we seen this?

Anyone?

Alcohol Prohibition.

Look at the situation in the United States with alcohol prohibition back in the 1920's. We all know how that fared, don't we? And what was the trend when it came to crime? Did crime decrease with prohibition and increase with the passing of the legalization laws? Or was it the inverse?

Hint: Option 2.

You keep drugs illegal when there is demand for them, and you will have the situation you had then, and have now: gangs controlling and selling the substances, and a whole litany of crimes associated with this black market. When prohibition was repealed, most of the black market and the associated crimes disappeared.

You don't think that would be the same here?

So, let's talk about what we're seeing with this ''war.'' Here are a few facts:

1) $44.1 BILLION dollars a year spent in the U.S. For law enforcement related to drug laws

2) $76.8 BILLION lost potential funds being injected into the economy (the $$ for the law enforcement, in addition to potential revenue brought in from the taxation on the sale of these drugs).

3) 1 MILLION people a YEAR are incarcerated in the U.S for drug related offences. The majority are for personal stashes, the most popular of which is marijuana, a plant that grows in nature and had been used for millenia (which would have been put there by god, according to the religious majority, no?). The 1 million people account for 25% of all people in jail. Of all of the possible crimes, ¼ were there for drug offences.

4) Coca growers and poppy cultivators from foreign places like South America and Afghanistan have been rendered poor and hungry due to the eradication policies enacted by other countries, most notably the good ol' US of A.

5) Health problems, birth defects and death due to American sponsored spraying of toxic herbicides over the jungles of South and Central America. Environmental damage, including to ecosystems and food crops. (Seriously, why the FUCK are America and other countries in everyone's fucking business?)

6) Outlawing of hemp, which does NOT have significant amount of THC in it, but DOES produce a fantastic range of things, including rope, fuel, textiles, and biocomposites, among other things. The seed of hemp is also a fantastically nutritious food, and hemp grows fast and in nearly all climates, with little need for pesticides (and no requirement for herbicide use).

7) MILIONS of deaths. Countless stories of people and non human animals (pets, you know, people's family; kids' friends) being killed, both purposefully and incidentally, due to raids and other things. Recently, in America, the SWAT team was sent in to a house at night to arrest a father for possession. They broke in, and, in front of a terrified 7 year old boy, shot the families two puppies killing one and shooting off the paw of the other (sick motherfucking goddamn bastard pieces of SHIT), threw the dad on the ground, kicked him in the head, and then arrested him. The crime? He had a small amount of pot in a baggie, and they ended up giving him a fine of less than $200.

A DOG DIED AND ANOTHER ONE SUFFERED IMMENSELY. A SEVEN YEAR OLD BOY WAS TERRORIZED AND LOST  HIS COMPANIONS, AS DID THE WHOLE FAMILY. A FATHER ASSAULTED AND ARRESTED. ALL FOR A LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR MISDEMEANOR, WHICH WAS LEVIED BECAUSE HE HAD A SMALL AMOUNT OF A PLANT IN HIS HOUSE.

Seriously, what the FUCK!!!!

You do NOT go to war against your own fucking citizens! I'm AMAZED that America (and the other countries, including my own, but especially America) a country that PRIDES itself on ''freedom'' allows this shit. How the FUCK can you reconcile the idea of freedom with a war against the people for the personal consumption of substances, some of which grow on the fucking earth?

I get that there are actual problems with recreational drugs, in terms of health effects and such, but why do we allow fast food, alcohol, gambling, sky diving, babies in cars, teenage drivers, etc etc etc etc etc? Is trying to protect people from themselves worth the death and destruction of people, property, and the economy?

Where's the fucking logic, goddamn it?

This ''war'' needs to stop.

ENOUGH KILLING AND WASTING OF RESOURCES! ENOUGH RUINING LIVES AND PERSECUTING PEOPLE FOR PERSONAL CHOICE!

Legalize the shit, regulate it, tax it, put in resources to help people, educate people, and let's try and have a productive, intelligent, educated autonomous society as opposed to a fucking stupid cesspool of Orwellian, Draconian laws and (religious?) moral crusaders who are doing way more fucking harm than good!

The End, Goddamn it!