We spend over $100 Billion dollars yearly on “The War on Drugs,” which, after 40 years, has barely made a dent in curtailing those determined to use drugs. Privitized Prisons have become the very model of Capitalism at the cost of human misery, such prisons are stuffed with drug users and low level dealers, so much so, that we have, on a par with China, become the World’s biggest jailer. And to what purpose? Are fewer people using drugs? Or committing fewer crimes to procure them?
I’m with Buckley on the issue, either Legalize it, or decriminalize it and acknowlege that drug abuse is a medical problem and treat it as such. For example, for opiate addicts, there is a substance, one of the brand names is subutex, which takes the hunger for heroin, oxycontin, etc, away, does not get the patient “high,” and allows individuals to reclaim their life by becoming functioning citizens again. However,
Current short sighted policy has prevented this very useful opoid agonist from being prescribed by one’s primary Physician, and only permits expensive, specially licensed Practitioners from prescribing it, and the drug itself, dispensed very cheaply in Europe BTW, is very expensive to purchase here. Where is the common sense in that Policy?
(The DEA is An agency that I oppose, btw, as I feel it is too intrusive into the Doctor-Patient relationship, and has an agenda of it’s own: maintaining Political and social power over the citizens of the United States, that is counter to their original mandate which was to prevent the “diversion” of narcotics, etc.and NOT to tell Doctors how they can treat their patients, I speak of non-terminal, Chronic Pain Patients who are every bit as embattled currently with the policies of this agency as some gun owners have been with the ATF in the past.)
At any rate, the addicted, like the poor, will always be with us. Personally, I’ve always seen addition as being indicative of some other issue, a symptom as it were. I think that those who think of addiction only in terms of being a “moral failing” are misreading the issue, IMO.
In addition, Prohibition of alcohol only encouraged American scoff-laws at best, and organized crime at worst.
Anyone with a Libertarian bone in their body should oppose Current US drug Policy.
In Afghanistan’s case, I also think that we might as well pay the Farmers to raise the poppies, and then use the crop to either to make opoids or destroy it (The seeds of the Opium Poppy, BTW, are edible…they are the same seeds used on poppy seed bagels, for example.
Our current policies are not only fiscally irresponsible, they simply don’t work.
