Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jan 2011
Source: Herald News, The (Fall River, MA)
Copyright: 2011 The Herald News
Contact:  http://www.heraldnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3604
Author: William A. Collins
Note: OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is a former state 
representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Conn.

THE ETERNAL DRUG WAR

The Afghanistan war sometimes seems interminable. It just became the 
longest hot war in U.S. history. Europe's Hundred Years War remains 
the world record holder, but things moved slower back then. Pentagon 
officials appear to dream of setting a new record in Kabul.

Meanwhile, our War on Drugs is quietly building its own longevity 
record. This war dates back to the Nixon administration and shows 
little sign of abating. The latest skirmish just concluded with 
California's failed pot referendum.

Attorney General Eric Holder's troops, amply funded by the generous 
liquor and prison industries, fought off a determined attack by Drug 
War realists and pot smokers aimed at regulating (legalizing) 
marijuana. Luckily for Holder, his side had more money. Yet on that 
same Election Day, Arizona became the 15th state to approve medical 
marijuana -- a testament to the public's indifference to the war's moralizers.

Elsewhere, this war isn't going well. Who knows how many luckless 
folks were murdered in Mexico, caught in the destructive drug-fueled 
gang violence? Mexico has decriminalized small amounts of most drugs 
to drain some oomph out of that violence, with little impact. The 
violence helps control the transport of drugs to the north of the 
U.S. border -- not the south.

Our marijuana use keeps climbing, despite the Drug War. The Golden 
State grows so much cannabis that even if California's voters had 
passed Proposition 19, local smugglers might have been largely 
unaffected. Nationally though, Big Liquor was truly worried. Not only 
would legal pot have cut into its business, but a recent study 
concluded that alcohol is even more socially destructive than heroin. 
Marijuana seems tame by comparison.

The prison industry was also anxious about the outcome of 
California's vote.  Current drug laws keep those for-profit jails 
brimming with small-time users who pose no threat to anyone. This 
front of the war keeps plenty of cops, guards, prosecutors, 
defenders, wardens, and builders and suppliers of prisons out of the 
unemployment lines.

Not to be seen as impotent, Congress leapt into action, doing what it 
does best. It created a blue-ribbon commission. No doubt this group 
will be so broad-based that nothing will come of it. Those with a 
financial interest in the war will drown out those who really want 
something done.

The commission would do well to consider the example of other 
countries. Portugal, though a financial basket case, leads the way on 
drug reform. It has decriminalized just about everything and has 
reaped the benefits of less crime, less law enforcement, and even 
less drug usage. Switzerland leads in treating heroin medically 
instead of criminally, with a similar happy outcome. Canada is 
following suit, over stern U.S. protests. President Barack Obama has 
promised vastly expanded needle exchanges, but little has happened.

Meanwhile our aggressive cocaine eradication assault in Colombia has 
driven much of the production to Peru. A similar assault on key poppy 
provinces in Afghanistan has successfully driven heroin production 
elsewhere. Whoopie! Attacking sources of drug supplies works about as 
well now as similar approaches did during Prohibition.

Despite the Drug War's horrific casualties, most elected leaders are 
fearful of seeking peace. Some of their campaign donors would lose 
profits, and their opponents could stir up fear and hate. Sounds a 
lot like the War on Terror.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake