Pubdate: Fri, 23 Nov 2001
Source: Rock River Times (IL)
Copyright: The Rock River Times 2001
Contact:  http://www.rockrivertimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/539
Author: Myron Von Hollingsworth

WHO IS PROFITING FROM THE 'DRUG WAR'?

To M.L. Simon:

Sadly I know (as you do) the answer to your question, and it is rational 
only to those who profit by perpetuating prohibition. I have written the 
politicians and received the same prohibitionist party-line propaganda 
responses from all of them except a few, like Gary Johnson.

Truth to tell, the drug warrior politicians, officials, media and civilians 
secretly don't list victory as an objective in their expensive and 
oppressive trillion dollar war. When they do spout their "zero 
tolerance/total victory" rhetoric, how many of your readers actually 
believe them? How many actually believe that this year's 
multi-billion-dollar drug war budget will be the one that will achieve 
total victory after decades of billion-dollar budgets have totally failed?

Just remember that the drug czars' and warriors' jobs depend on the 
perpetual prosecution of, but NEVER a victory in, the drug war. Also, 
remember that the politicians depend on the drug war and its rhetoric to 
scare up votes (by scaring voters). The politicians also rely on the drug 
war to sustain their constituent industries that depend on the economics of 
prohibition in order to make generous profits and campaign contributions 
that keep the drug warrior politicians in power and, therefore, keep 
themselves in business.

Remember what H. L. Menken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to 
keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by 
menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Maybe the corrupt politicians and media are required to adhere to the party 
line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison and 
military industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the "drug 
treatment" industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians 
themselves et. al., can't  live without the budget justification, not to 
mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits 
that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes, justifies, and 
perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms 
that are supposed to be inalienable according to the Constitution and the 
Bill of Rights.

Myron Von Hollingsworth

Fort Worth, Texas
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