Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jun 2004
Source: Columbus Free Press (OH)
Copyright: 2004 The Columbus Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freepress.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3168
Author: Mark Verhoff
Note: Mark Verhoff is the president of the Ohio State University chapter of 
SSDP.
Note: Series from a Special edition of the Free Press, published in 
conjunction with Hempfest 2004. For other articles in this series, click 
this link http://www.mapinc.org/source/Columbus+Free+Press

TALK IS CHEAP, PERHAPS WE SHOULD GIVE IT A SHOT

Presidential politics. War. Terror. Oil and energy. Economics and 
environment. In the world today, there are so many uncertainties and so 
many threats to our country and way of life that one might wonder why Drug 
War politics should be an issue at all. And to the average American, it 
might make sense that our current situation mandates a steadfast vigilance 
against drugs, drug pushers, and drug users. For of course, these things 
are a scourge to society according to the inundation of anti-drug 
propaganda America has seen throughout the past couple years. For example, 
drugs fund terrorism. This is another heavy revelation when taken in 
addition to the already 'well-known' fact that drugs are a major factor in 
inner-city crime, and a huge burden to the American tax-payer, who of 
course must foot the bill for the addicts' jail time (and to a lesser 
extent, their rehabilitation).

However, the strangest thing about being an opponent to drug prohibition is 
that one cannot deny these claims. It is true that drug profits help fund 
terrorism. However, it is also true that the immediate markup in price from 
prohibiting the substance is what makes them profitable for groups seeking 
to maximize moneymaking ability in a short period of time. The 
international drug trade is worth approximately 400 BILLION dollars 
annually, every cent of which is tax free and untraceable. It is not the 
drugs that are to be directly implicated in terrorism and violent crime, it 
is the drug trade.

It is the black market price markup that pushes thousands of individuals 
living in poverty to turn to drug sales to try to make ends meet. And in 
communities of the disenfranchised, it is that same poverty (and the wish 
to escape from) that furnishes the demand for such drug sales. It is that 
black market price markup that gives incentive for powerful governments, 
such as the United States, to utilize drug profits to help fund campaigns 
of coercion in foreign lands (i.e. Nicaragua, et al) that would not be 
approved for the receipt of tax money.

Furthermore, modern prohibition has the effect of separating science from 
its means. Why should humanity be forbidden to investigate the ecological 
benefits that increased use of hemp products would facilitate? Why should 
psychiatrists and neurologists be unable to freely investigate the modus 
operandi of substances such as LSD, which carries with it the unique weight 
of being an unofficial catalyst for the massive change in thinking during 
the 1960's.

Why should science and civilians be held to the whim of rich industrialists 
who wish to maintain monopolies on goods that can be recreated through 
other means, or companies who profit from of the use of mercenary armies in 
third-world nations known for being drug suppliers? Why should we fall 
victim to a forked-tongue politician who pushes strong prohibition as a 
means of getting elected?

And more importantly, when are we going to realize that the real evil is 
not drug use, but our own misunderstanding of what drugs really mean and 
how they relate to both societal and individual development throughout 
history. Perhaps blanket legalization is not the answer, for that would be 
just as fool-hearty as blanket prohibition. But, the true solution will 
never be found until we begin to embrace rational discussion in this time 
of high need.

Mark Verhoff

President, SSDP 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake