The War on Drugs

Mom always said that running rum, home brewing beer, and making bathtub gin were acts of mercy and certainly not sins. The four adult males in our extended family household during Prohibition subscribed to that tenet but were avid consumers rather than producers. While I broke the law by imbibing slightly below the legal age, I made up for my crime by continuing the practice of moderate consumption into my dotage.

I took up dragging on coffin nails at the tender age of twelve but cannot certify that I was anywhere near the youngest on my block to be avidly supporting North Carolina tobacco farmers. Thankfully, when the Surgeon General of the United States finally made the pronouncement that smoking was mortally dangerous, I quit. Smoking was not considered addictive in those days, merely a difficult to break `bad habit.’ Amen! I was never so sick or depressed in my life and for five years I had withdrawal symptoms whenever I saw anyone puffing.

My first novel, A Tattered Coat Upon A Stick, devotes a number of chapters to the characters doing their damnedest to meet the heartfelt needs of our Irish American brethren. I was from a culture that did not agree with Prohibition and believed that it did more damage to society than any the so-called moral improvement that was the basis for its installation. Obviously, over time the American people came to believe that too and rose to rid the nation of the pox placed upon it by the goody-goodies among us.

This preface is not designed to demonstrate that I favor scofflaws who use illicit drugs; rather, it’s an effort to show the folly of prohibiting the use of substances that are not perceived by the users as dangerous and which are viewed as a corruption of governmental powers by over-jealous do-gooders.

When Prohibition was repealed the initial incidence of alcoholism rose. Certainly the number of people killed by drunk drivers rose during my long lifetime of driving – even though it is equally obvious that there were more sheer numbers of cars and drinkers. Today, alcohol continues to play a significant role in the number of highway deaths. But even Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) – which I happily support – would never call for a return to Prohibition. Yet through the action of MADD, groups that had previously supported the notion of outlawing demon rum, and a clear thinking and brave health care community, the statistical incidence of drunk driving and resulting roadway deaths has been significantly reduced through education, medical treatment of alcoholics, and aggressive enforcement of laws against DUI and public drunkenness, and we now find ourselves in an era of much more responsible drinking – and driving.

Similarly, in the years since the Surgeon General first cited the dangers of smoking right up until the twenty-ninth report from the current office holder concerning second hand smoke issued this week, through education and social disapproval the per capita use of tobacco products has gone down significantly. It is clear that the approach made by society and its representatives in dealing with a product that is far more dangerous than some of the drugs currently prohibited is a much more sensible approach than the multi-billion dollar war on drugs that was declared in the seventies by President Richard Nixon and which continues in fully fury to this day with little impact on the enemy.

The roles of government toward drugs should be as an honest evaluator of the dangers of the substances, an educator on the dangers of the drugs, a regulator of the market, the greatest funder of research and medical treatment of addicts, the leading institution of social disapproval, and the enforcer of laws and regulations put in place against bad behavior of users. There are many private institutions ready to support these governmental roles with political and social pressure, independent research and educational programs that dovetail with the public efforts.

Our successes with alcohol and tobacco are prima-facie evidence that alternatives to prohibition exist. Our experience with Prohibition in the third and fourth decades of the last century during which the rule of law was undermined and the growth an underworld that still plagues us was encouraged should have shown us another way.

But we did not go in a different direction; we spent billions for little gain. Governments of many poor nations were undermined and a new and even more dynamic underworld was developed. And still we fell further behind in the war.

The following are links to two articles that sparked this posting. While from the liberal press, they clearly support libertarian notions on individual behavior and undermine the value of the War on Drugs.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/06/27/the_wrong_way_to_fight_the_war_on_drugs/?p1=email_to_a_friend

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/health/27cnd-smoke.html?ex=1152072000&en=fb78e953d875908f&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Is it four o’clock yet?

Blog on!

Wild Bill