Pubdate: Tue, 1 Feb 2005
Source: Free Press, The (Houston, TX)
Copyright: 2005 The Free Press, Houston
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/3222
Note: This newspaper does not have a website.
Author: Dean Becker

DRUG WAR, A DISGRACE

I work daily to expose the mechanisms of fraud, institutionalized for
ninety years that demonize and penalize our fellow man for making a
nebulous choice of intoxicant. Those who possess minor amounts of
certain commodities, not manufactured by the fortune 500 may be
subjected to penalties more severe than for skyjacking, terrorism and
manslaughter, combined.  This is not the face of justice.

90 years ago our leaders told us to circle the wagons, "barbarians are
ambushing our children!"  (With drugs.)  Dutifully we created a
civilization cloaked in fear, awaiting the dread onslaught.  The
death, disease and destruction, created within this loop of "security"
have been ignored because we've been told that to change our focus
might allow our barriers to be broached.  Those who thus claim to
protect us by way of eternal drug prohibition, are in fact, if not
with intent, party to the "attack" on our society and whether through
ignorance or collusion, in league with the drug traffickers.

Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate, as a guest on Cultural Baggage,
my radio program, summarized his stance on the drug war in a few
words: "My main objection to the drug war is on moral grounds.  I
think it's a disgrace and a scandal."  Mr. Friedman, a genius, a world
renown and highly respected economist is one of the few people now
living who was born before the drug war began, who has seen the
complete unfolding of this fiasco of prohibition.

December 17th, 2004 marked 90 years of drug war, 90 years since the
signing of the Harrison Narcotics Act.  A trillion US tax dollars have
been lost in the tsunami of drug prohibition.  Tens of trillions have
been handed over to drug sellers worldwide.  What else have we
wrought?  Tens of millions of our fellow citizens arrested, they and
their families rejected, thwarted from progress by government mandate,
their future progress made dependent on perfection.

The evidence of the sham of drug war is all around us.  The whole of
the drug war is a farce, the modern equivalent of a witch-hunt.  There
is no justice to this drug war, with no scientific fact, logic or
moral clarity involved. To ignore the data and to continue this
charade of drug prohibition is foolish and un-American.

Take heart, major change is taking place.  The people of Seattle,
Washington, (approximately the size of Houston, with a metropolitan
population of 3,554,760), through their King County Bar Association,
(KCBA) are making great progress towards ending the harms of drug
prohibition.  In late January, KCBA issued a report to their state
government, seeking ways for "the state to effectively regulate and
control psychoactive substances that are currently produced and
distributed exclusively in illegal markets."

Joining the Bar Association is a coalition of professional and civic
groups including, the Washington State Public Health Association,
Physicians for Social Responsibility of Washington, League of Women
Voters of Seattle, (African-American) Bar Association, Washington
State Psychological Association, Washington Academy of Family
Physicians, Washington State Pharmacy Association and even the
Washington Society of Addiction Medicine.

The "stuffed shirts" of the KCBA have concluded that "current drug
control policies are fundamentally flawed and that the unrelenting
demand for prohibited psychoactive substances has fostered and
strengthened highly profitable illegal markets and that the operation
of such illegal markets is a proximate cause of devastating societal
impacts."

The KCBA concluded that "the establishment of a framework of
state-level regulatory control over psychoactive substances, to render
the illegal markets for such substances unprofitable, to restrict
access to psychoactive substances by young persons and to provide
prompt health care and essential services to persons suffering from
chemical dependency and addiction, will better serve the objectives of
reducing crime, improving public order, enhancing public health,
protecting children and wisely using scarce public resources, than
current drug policies."

For Milton Friedman's sake, for our children's sake, let us dare to be
brave.  Let us end the 90-year scandal, the drug war disgrace.

Dean Becker is creator of the Drug Truth Network, a broadcast
syndicate with 23 affiliate stations in the US and Canada.  Daily
feeds of the 3 minute, "4:20 Drug War News" and the weekly, half hour
program "Cultural Baggage" are available at www.drugtruth.net.  Guests
include congressmen, judges, scientists, doctors, lawyers, wardens,
cops, authors and many others.

King County Bar Association on the web at:  www.kcba.org

In Houston, listen to the "unvarnished Truth about the drug war" on KPFT 
90.1 FM.  Contact Dean Becker:  ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake