THE 40-YEAR WAR ON DRUGS…..AN UPDATE!

THE  40-YEAR WAR ON DRUGS…..AN UPDATE!

(ACLU, Vanita Gupta, New York Times, Eduardo Porter, Jesse Ventura)

(Human Rights Watch, Richard Nixon, Hayo M.G. van der Werf, Austin J. McVey)

(Russian Times, Benedict Patrick, Laura Schaur Ives, Michael Tonry, Frazer Chronicle)

 

The War On Drugs, a skirmish that grew out of a phrase at a press conference on June 18, 1971, it was a day after the United States President, Richard M. Nixon, had delivered a special publication to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control-where he declared drug abuse public enemy number one.  The text included more federal resources for the prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who were addicted. Sadly the term war on drugs met with much more fanfare then prevention and rehabilitation. No matter, whichever had a bigger impact, the war is close to 43 years old, and is a dismal failure.

 

The war (it is a war because there are casualties) on drugs, is by far the longest engagement that the United States has ever experienced. It’s been a war of ebbs and flows, indifference, a war of urgency, and then an almost complete sense of complacency. To a degree this war has been one that is hard to figure, let’s face the facts of life regarding this war on drugs, in many ways the effort is totally half hearted.

 

There have been many countries that the United States turned their backs on so that that country could transport their drugs out of their country for delivery to a world-wide clientele. The revenue that these countries receive is vital to their economies. Some of these countries are Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and the Bahamas.

 

The war on drugs actually can be traced far back in U.S. history, as the Nixon 1971 declaration of his War on Drugs was an extension of some of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and were actually a continuation of drug prohibition policies in the United States, which were started way back in 1914. The 1914 law that restricted the distribution and use of certain drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, and before Harrison, there were state and even local laws that came as early as 1860.

 

The problem with illicit drugs world-wide is an age old one; here in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created in 1930, and was an agency in the Department of the Treasury by an act on June 14, 1930. In 1973 the Drug Enforcement Administration was created and replaced the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

 

THE COSTS TO (COMBAT) DRUGS IS ASTRONOMICAL

The cost to battle drugs in the United States is completely out of control, when you’re talking about a price tag of $1,716.77 a second, $103,006.20 a minute, $6,180,372.00 an hour…..and, well you get the idea, the price goes up exponentially as U.S. taxpayers sacrificing a boat load of money to fight a problem that everybody, who is anybody knows is a complete bust.

 

I’ve learned that to get to the bottom of a particular issue, an issue that involves billions of dollars, all a person has to do is follow the money, and down at the end of the line you’ll find a sweaty money grubbing prick with the scruples of a salamander.

 

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) numbers 27 agencies, departments and administrations that employ in excess of 100,000 people. There are in addition 45 private sector agencies that are directly involved in the business of drug control, treatment and have access to avenues of incarceration with their ties to federal departments and agencies.

 

The starting salary for a rookie DEA agent is around $50,000, and if he’s good at his job, he’ll be making close to a hundred grand in four years. But above a decent paying jobs with outstanding benefits, the departments in the federal government who’s duty it is to fight drug trafficking and abuse, and these people work for, corral the old cash-0-la in the form of budgetary contributions from the operating budgets that they apply for.

 

You know I write these silly blogs, and believe you me, sometimes my blogs are on the silly side, something as important as the future of not only the United States, how we practice government, and what basically we believe in, but an entire sector of our species is in danger of being obliterated because of an entire generations is guilty of drug abuse.

 

ILLICIT DRUGS, NOT ALWAYS A WEAKNESS

There’s way too much ignorance connected with the knowledge of drugs by citizens in the United States, their use, and the definition of what addictive drugs really are, there also is a general lack of what these drugs can do to a person’s physical and mental well-being. Drug use is not always with a highly abusive substance, I’m not a drug user, with the exception of a handful of instances when I smoked some pot.

 

So I’m not considered a recreational drug use expert, or any kind of drug expert, I also wouldn’t know much…..if anything about other forms of drugs. I however have no problem reading, and my comprehension powers are considerable. And like alcohol, drug abuse can completely unwind a user’s life, no matter the choice of substance abuse, just because a skull and cross-bones are connected with illicit drugs, the same should be attached to a bottle of booze, or a six pack of Budweiser.

 

It was surprising to me, although it shouldn’t have been, but tobacco and alcohol were numbers one and two on the abusive list, nicotine for tobacco, ingested by inhaling, snorted or chewed, and alcohol…..swallowed. The health risks for both and their abuse are well documented, and there are heavy programs out there to deter their use.

 

We then have cannabinoids, Marijuana, and hashish, either can be ingested by smoking, or swallowed, and the effects are pretty well documented, but like tobacco and alcohol, warnings are pretty much ignored. I’ve gotta admit that the side-effects and health risks, unlike tobacco and alcohol, aren’t as well defined, and there seems to be an asterisk connected with health problems…..like coughing, and respiratory infections, and also a possible mental decline and addiction. The jury’s still out, but can Marijuana be a lesser evil than tobacco and alcohol use?

 

Then there’s opioid, which is Heroin and Opium, both terrible for users, but possibly not quite as horrible as depicted in movies and television drama shows. Both have huge and fatal consequences, Heroin is injected, smoked or snorted, while Opium is either swallowed or smoked. Overdoses, HIV from used needles, a heavy danger of addiction, endocarditic (inflammation of inner layer of heart), and savvier constipation.

 

Stimulants are Cocaine, Amphetamine, and Methamphetamine, and can be snorted, smoked, swallowed or injected. These drugs come with a whole host of side-effects and health risks, increased heart rate, blood pressure, tremors, violent behavior, weight loss, stroke, seizures, nasal damage, dental problems and addiction.

 

AT THE END OF THE DAY…..IN THE DRUG WAR, THERE IS NO END OF THE DAY

There have been more than 3,000,000 incarcerations for drug trafficking and illegal substance use, and the numbers aren’t going down. Clearly what programs are being used by law enforcement isn’t working, clearly the costs are just another chink in the armor of law enforcement, a completely failed effort to end a horrible, horrible human carnage.

 

To legalize Marijuana isn’t the answer to any kind of question, in fact to make pot legal is a joke, it’s what goes along with legalizing a controlled substance that maybe should have been left alone in the first place (with regards to legalizing it) maybe people should have been left to their own devices. But the authority figures made an issue out of the weed and now we’ve gotta deal with the question on a state by state basis, an expensive mess.

 

We’ve gotten so many agencies involved with enforcement, and made so many substances controlled, and therefore illegal, that pretty much the law doesn’t really have a chance. Law enforcement can’t knock on every door to see whose smoking, snorting or juicing up.

 

The sale of illicit and controlled substances has made the profits astronomical…..hell, I’ve fantasized about selling pot…..not really, but I have thought about lighting up a bowl for medical purposes. As with much of what we do as a nation, we need to reevaluate how we’re dealing with a problem of drug sales, distribution and use. Education, education, education, jobs, jobs, jobs, and stronger family circles, it’s not complicated, it’s simple, we all gotta work at it…..cause everybody that abuses is looking for help in one way or another.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY