Way back in the early 90's I was attending college. Like most young kids in college I had an English writing class. I had the chance to exercise my creative side though I quickly found out my warped sense of humor didn't go over to well with the Teacher's Aid who ran the class. On of my essays was on the War on Drugs. Even at that young age I could see that the War on Drugs (WOD from now on ) was lost. We could NEVER win the way we are currently fighting them. Take a look at prohibition. The criminal enterprises loved it. People still drank and they died from the concoctions passed off as alcohol. So I wrote a long essay on how to "Win' the WOD. Many others have seen the light but don't have the courage to stand up and shout it to the world. Politicians pander to the people who want strong laws to "SAVE" us from ourselves.
So what would it take to "WIN" the WOD ? That is really easy. Legalize drugs. Kills the incentive of the drug lords immediately. They can't make money when it is legal and readily available. But we would need some common sense laws and taxes in place. Just as with alcohol and tobacco, two drugs that we have decided to legalize, we would need to regulate them and tax them. The difference is this. We use the taxes to fund addiction treatment centers. Instead of building more and more jails and filling them with people who want to "feel good" or drift away from the pain in their lives. Use the taxes for the people and when they leave the addiction centers they become contributing members of society instead of becoming a "criminal" who has little chance of success in our current society.
Addiction treatment centers would allow addicts to get clean and learn life skills and if set up correctly produce a steady stream of productive members of society. People who contribute through taxes and their time. I can envision a three year program where those who become addicted and want to get clean have a place to go where they receive caring and humane treatment. Once they become "clean" they have 2 years of service to the community during which they receive job training and life skills while working for the community. It could be very similar to the old Civilian Conservation Corps or the newer Americorps.
There is another benefit to legalizing drugs. First there would be less accidental overdoses since the drugs would be the same strength and not cut with stuff that should never be put into the human body. Second we would be able to study the affects of these drugs and we may just find that some of them actually can be used for medically beneficial treatments. This is being seen with medical marijuana. Sure it is a wonderful way to get a buzz from what I have heard but it does have many medical benefits. It has been demonized and studying the affects have been banned for so long yet now we are seeing it can truly help people with certain illnesses. The largest benefit is the change from demonizing addicts to acceptance and treatment. This allows people to make mistakes and then gives them a second or third chance and become at the end productive, tax paying members of society instead of costing us money to incarcerate them at billions of dollars per year.
Jump n down past the orange snow doodle and we can explore some more benefits.
Currently we as a society demonize addicts. Doesn't matter what they are addicted to. Mention the word addiction and we see scorn and derision even when it is not in terms of drugs. We think people who are addicts are weak willed, lesser humans than the rest. We believe that addicts deserve whatever happens to them. They bring it on themselves. We rarely see compassion for addicts and that is truly sad. Changing that attitude is an uphill battle. Politicians love to show they are strong on the WOD. They thump their chests and create laws that do more harm than good. We have seen mandatory sentencing guidelines and longer prison terms advocated. We never hear of treatment and rehabilitation laws being passed.
Life goes on. Society goes on. We may eventually become more compassionate towards addiction. We have seen those addicted to alcohol are starting to pave the way for the rest. Society is becoming more compassionate but it is a slow process. It needs to speed up. We can see some progress as some of these horrible mandatory sentencing guidelines are repealed but more needs to be done and quickly. The benefits to society are huge. The downside if we continue our current course is huge as well. We as a nation have incarcerated a huge number of our citizens for drug crimes. These people have screwed up their lives and instead of treating the cause we have instead demonized the addicts. That is truly a shame.
There is another downside I mentioned briefly above. That is people who have to live with chronic pain have been impacted by the WOD. The drugs needed to treat chronic pain have been demonized. Those who have been treated with these drugs and become addicted are viewed with scorn instead of getting the treatment they need. In addition doctors are afraid of prescribing these drugs. The DEA has pursued doctors for prescribing these drugs. They have hounded patients and delved into their private medical records. Who knows what they have passed on from those records ? Who knows how secure those records are when in DEA custody ? Why are people who are not doctors even putting their noses into medical treatments ? Why are politicians writing laws to deny treatment and open medical records of pain patients ? These are questions that need answers. These are actions that need to be stopped now. Tennessee has passed a law that allows the medical records of pain clinic patients to be seized by law enforcement for no reason. This boggles the mind. These records should not be open for any LEO who decides he has an issue with pain medications. Other states may soon follow suit and enact similar laws. These need to be stopped NOW.