Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jan 2011
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: William A. Collins
Note: The author is a former state representative and a former mayor 
of Norwalk, Conn. This article was distributed by Other Words 
(http://otherwords.org), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

THE ETERNAL DRUG WAR

Despite the Horrific Casualties From the War on Drugs, Most Elected 
Leaders Are Fearful of Seeking Peace

The Afghanistan War sometimes seems interminable. It just became the 
longest hot war in U.S. history.

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. 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?

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 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 leaped into action doing what it 
does best. It created a blue-ribbon commission.

The commission would do well to consider the example of other 
countries. Portugal 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.

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