Our nation has been fighting the so-called War on Drugs for decades. And what do we have to show for it? At least $1 trillion spent; we lead the world in the incarceration of our people; a major loss of our civil liberties; all illicit drugs being plentifully available both for us and our children (and we can’t even keep them out of our prisons!); juvenile street gangs not only prospering by selling illicit drugs, but also using their sales as a recruiting tool; large numbers of mentally ill people being jailed for self-medicating to stave off their demons; and the loss of more money from our shores than for any other reason except oil. And now our present Attorney General wants to “double down” on everything that has been shown not to work. The answer to that attempt must be No!
And what has happened in other countries like Mexico, Colombia, Thailand, Afghanistan and many others is far worse! For example, since Mexico’s former President Felipe Calderon started emulating our War on Drugs in 2006, that country has seen a material spike in crime and corruption, to the extent that more than 200,000 people have been killed, including some being beheaded and others being killed in barrels of acid! Furthermore, virtually every terrorist organization in the world gets most of its financing from selling illegal drugs. And it may also well be that a large part of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program was financed by the sale of illicit methamphetamines. The list goes on and on. But none of these disasters really have anything to do with the drugs themselves – they are all caused by drug money! Fortunately we are starting to come back to our senses and repealing this disaster, at least with marijuana – and the rest of the world is beginning to follow our lead. And once that occurs, we will probably start medicalizing the other drugs. So who knows, after the evils of Drug Prohibition are finally behind us, we might even be able to reclaim some of our lost Liberties.
Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President
** Here is an additional quote for the week, seen on a sign for sale in a store:
“Retirement: twice the husband for half the money.”
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