Now, I am not an expert on drug cartels, drug addiction, drug treatment, or drug usage. However, it is obvious to any non-expert like myself that what we are doing now is a total failure:
- Powerful and ever growing Mexican drug cartels are threatening the national sovereignty of not only Mexico but other Central and South American countries.
- The growing wealth and assets of the drug cartels enable the corruption of law enforcement, political, and judicial officials in all of these threatened countries.
- Tens of thousands of mostly innocent Mexican civilians have been killed in the violent cross fire of the drug cartel wars in Mexico.
- Extensive taxpayer resources are spent to not only apprehend, prosecute, and imprison powerful drug criminals but also casual drug users.
- There are probably insufficient drug treatment and research resources deployed to actually help addicts rather than imprison them.
- A recent Iranian conspiracy to murder the Saudi Arabian diplomat in Washington D.C. may have had ties to the Mexican drug cartels, indicating that the cartels may pose a national security threat to the United States.
- A February 9, 2012 Associated Press article reported that Mexican authorities had found 15 tons of pure methamphetamine at a Sinaloa drug cartel facility. The article says that the 15 tons were equivalent to half of all the illegal meth seized in all of 2009. This tonnage came from only one bust. Imagine how much physical space 15 tons of powdered meth takes up and then imagine how this was only one bust of one drug cartel.
- A February 11, 2012 Associated Press article discussed the massive cat and mouse game being played on the U.S./Mexican border as it relates to cash smuggling. The cash is the result of selling illegal drugs in the United States and then trying to get the cash profits back to the drug cartels in Mexico. The article reports that the U.S. government made 458 arrests last year for cash smuggling which involved $150 million. However, this is just a fraction of the estimated $19 billion in cash that passes over the border every year in drug profits. Imagine how many weapons, police officers, judges, and politicians the drug cartels can buy and corrupt with $19 billion every year.
- According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2009, 16.7 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, an increase over the rates reported in all years between 2002 and 2008. Combine this usage with the illegal usage of heroin, cocaine and meth and you find that a high percentage of Americans are regularly getting high on illegal drugs, flaunting the justice system.
- An October, 2011 article in Reason magazine goes into detail on how the Obama administration has been no better than previous administrations relative to the lost war on drugs. In fact, if anything, this administration has been intensifying this losing strategy by threatening to go after legal medical marijuana dispensaries and users, a treatment option that eases the pain and suffering of Americans suffering from certain ailments and cancers: "Obama's policy on medical marijuana has been in some ways even more aggressively intolerant than George W. Bush's, featuring more frequent raids, ruinous IRS audits, and threats of prosecution against not only dispensaries but anyone who deals with them."
But there is also indications that some politicians, none in this country, are beginning to understand how futile the historical approach to drug addiction really is:
- In a February 1, 2012 Associated Press article, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said he will propose legalizing drugs in Central America in an upcoming meeting with the region's leaders. Molina said the war on drugs and all the money and technology received from the U.S. has not diminished drug trafficking in the area. There are are at least two Mexican drug cartels operating in his country, increasing the national murder rate, much like what happened in Mexico as the cartels got more powerful.
Molina wants to legalize and regulate the transportation of drugs throughout his country. He has reached the conclusion that business as usual in the illegal drug business has been fruitless and deadly for his citizens. He is at least willing to consider alternatives to the failed war on drugs.
- In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Prior to that time, drug abuse was considered the number one public health problem in the country. Rather than increase the current war on drugs tactics, Portugal went into a whole different direction, decriminalizing usage.
According to an article from Time magazine in April, 2009, the results have been significantly positive (details of Portugal's experience can be read at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html )
Drug abuse actually went down significantly in Portugal and many more citizens went looking for the expanded addiction treatment options the government rolled out. The theory behind the increase in people seeking treatment for drug abuse was the fact that it was no longer a criminal act to be hidden from the authorities. Under Portugal's decriminalization program, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment.
The most basic learning from their changed approach is that drug abuse rates did not increase with decriminalization. That seems to be the biggest fear of those that do not want to change away from our failed war on drugs. There is potential to reduce usage, increase treatment, and focus law enforcement on those that supply illegal drugs vs. those that use illegal drugs if the Portugal experience can be repeated.
- For decades, the Dutch have decriminalized the use of marijuana under the following principles:
- Dutch drug policy is driven by the tenet that every human being may decide about the matters of their own health.
- The Dutch strategy also relies on the assumption that hiding social negative activities do not make them to disappear. On the contrary, it makes them worse, because when concealed, they become far more difficult to influence and control.
- Applying these ideas to their drug laws the Dutch try as much as possible to decriminalize the use of drugs, making it a private matter of each individual, and not a matter for the enforcement apparatus.
- Production, trading and stocking large amounts of drugs remain a criminal offence, as in any other country.
- However, the Dutch treat drug addiction as a public health issue and have deployed a wide range of health treatment options to help drug addicts.
- Most importantly, the decriminalization of marijuana has not resulted in increased usage.
http://www.amsterdam.info/drugs/
Given the experiences of other countries around the world, there does appear to be some rationale, compassionate alternatives to our losing war on drugs:
- Our current approach is short on health treatment but long on law enforcement.
- Our current approach diverts limited law enforcement resources to dealing with small time users and dealers when major, violent drug cartels get richer and more violent.
- Our current approach is short on treatment and long on imprisonment.
- Our current approach denies pain relief to those Americans that are suffering from a variety of health ills and ailments.
- Our current approach results in tens of billions of dollars leaving the country ever year, enriching violent drug cartels in the process.
- Our current approach infringes on our freedom of choice, an American should be free to do what he or she wants to their body as long as they do not endanger or impose on the rights and safety of others.
- Our current approach encourages disrespect and the ignoring of our judicial system, given that millions of Americans currently disobey our laws on a daily basis.
That is what Step 26 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" proposes. A commission of experts would be established that take a ground zero look at what the illegal drug usage and production situations are in this country and what could be done to change our losing ways.
All options would be on the table, ranging from the death penalty for causal users to complete legalization of all drugs. Each option would be researched, analyzed, and conclusions reached on the social, economic, national security, and health implications of each option. Final output of the commission would be a set of recommendations on how to end this insanity we call the war on drugs.
I do not believe that the current set of politicians in Washington are capable of making such a comprehensive assessment. If they were, this assessment would have happened already since anyone with a shred of intelligence already realizes that our current war on drugs is a disaster. The United States of Purple is willing to try something different since the ramifications of not doing something more effective is not a viable approach to the health of our freedom and democracy, our citizens, and our national security.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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