The War on Drugs

 
This week I want to talk about the War on Drugs.

Started by President Richard Nixon in 1971, I suppose only Nixon knows why he decided to ignore numerous reports that many drugs have possibly beneficial uses from Doctors, Scientists and even his own Republican lead commission review team reported that Marijuana should not be a Schedule One Narcotic and Unanimously voted to decriminalize. Whatever the reason, be it that he saw the terrible devastation Heroin had on our troops returning from Vietnam or if there was some other hidden agenda (like possibly distracting the public from his own indiscretions), it is obvious that today the War on Drugs is futile and already cost the American Public over One Trillion dollars. The cost of this war is not only measured in money as many people have seen their loved ones spiral out of control and either die or become incarcerated for what should be a public health issue instead of a crime.

As I grow as a person and open my eyes to the problems of the world, I realize that our Country is not the greatest in the world. There are many Countries that go about handling the Drug problem differently with varying degrees of success. A Country that many people over look as influential is Portugal, whom in 2003 following the recommendation of a national commission set up to address the growing drug problem decriminalized all drug use. Instead of jailing these unfortunate people, Portugal's government set up treatment programs in lieu of incarceration siting a moral and financial savings as incentive. Many other countries have joined in this humanitarian effort to change the world Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras to name just a few. Since the decriminalization of drugs in these Countries, the number of addicts has been cut in half.

To me the answer is very simple: Decriminalization is the only way to move forward in our Country, and for a Country that claims individual freedom as our cornerstone, we sure seem to be going about it the wrong way. Not only is punishing someone for doing something to themselves is wrong, but we are blatantly putting billions of dollars into the hands of people willing to commit heinous crimes in order to keep this ruse going.

~ Hugh