Pubdate: Fri, 17 Feb 2006
Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW)
Section: Feature Article
Website: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
Author: Jacob G. Hornberger
Note: Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of the Future of 
Freedom Foundation - http://www.fff.org
Cited: Committee to Protect Journalists http://www.cpj.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Nuevo+Laredo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico

CONSERVATIVE NONSENSE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

Conservatives never cease to fascinate me, given their professed 
devotion to "freedom, free enterprise, and limited government" and 
their ardent support of policies that violate that principle. One of 
the most prominent examples is the drug war. In fact, if you're ever 
wondering whether a person is a conservative or a libertarian, a good 
litmus-test question is, How do you feel about the war on drugs? The 
conservative will respond, "Even though I believe in freedom, free 
enterprise, and limited government, we've got to continue waging the 
war on drugs." The libertarian will respond, "End it. It is an 
immoral and destructive violation of the principles of freedom, free 
enterprise, and limited government."

The most recent example of conservative drug-war nonsense is an 
article entitled "Winning the Drug War," by Jonathan V. Last in the 
current issue of The Weekly Standard, one of the premier conservative 
publications in the country. In his article, Last cites statistics 
showing that drug usage among certain groups of Americans has 
diminished and that supplies of certain drugs have decreased. He says 
that all this is evidence that the war on drugs is finally succeeding 
and that we just need to keep waging it for some indeterminate time 
into the future, when presumably U.S. officials will finally be able 
to declare "victory."

Of course, we've heard this type of "positive" drug-war nonsense for 
the past several decades, at least since Richard Nixon declared war 
on drugs back in the 1970s. What conservatives never tell us is how 
final "victory" will ultimately be measured.  Like all other drug 
warriors for the past several decades, Last doesn't say, "The 
statistics are so good that the drug war has now been won and 
therefore we can now end it," but rather, "Victory is right around 
the corner.  The statistics are getting better. Let's keep going."

Last failed to mention what is happening to the people of Nuevo 
Laredo, Mexico, where drug lords compete violently to export illegal 
drugs into the United States to reap the financial benefits of 
exorbitant black-market prices and profits that the drug war has 
produced.  Recently drug gangs fired high-powered weapons and a 
grenade into the newsroom of La Manana, killing Jaime Orozco Tey, a 
40-year-old father of three.  Several other journalists have been 
killed in retaliation for their stories on the drug war, and 
newspapers are now self-censoring in fear of the drug lords. There 
are also political killings in Nuevo Laredo arising out of the drug 
war, including the city's mayor after he had served the grand total 
of nine hours in office. According to the New York Times, "In Nuevo 
Laredo, the federal police say average citizens live in terror of 
drug dealers.  Drug-related killings have become commonplace." The 
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that the 
U.S.-Mexico border region is now one of the world's most dangerous 
places for reporters.

Not surprisingly, Last did not mention these statistics in his "We're 
winning the drug war" article.

During Prohibition, there were undoubtedly people such as Last 
claiming, "Booze consumption is down.  We're winning the war on 
booze.  Al Capone is in jail. We've got to keep on waging the war on 
booze until we can declare final victory."

Fortunately, Americans living at that time finally saw through such 
nonsense, especially given the massive Prohibition-related violent 
crime that the war on booze had spawned. They were right to finally 
legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol and treat alcohol 
consumption as a social issue, not a criminal-justice problem.

Both conservatives and liberals have waged their war on drugs for 
decades, and they have reaped nothing but drug gangs, drug lords, 
robberies, thefts, muggings, murders, dirty needles, overcrowded 
prisons, decimated families, record drug busts, government 
corruption, infringements on civil liberties, violations of financial 
privacy, massive federal spending, and, of course, ever-glowing 
statistics reflecting drug-war "progress."

Americans would be wise to reject, once and for all, the war on 
drugs, and cast drug prohibition, like booze prohibition, into the 
ashcan of history.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake