War on Drugs - is it working? [documentary]

I believe the "war on drugs" has been very effective at:

1. turning American citizens into subjects
2. filling our prisons with people convicted of victimless crimes
3. enriching the coffers of law enforcement at all levels
4. making all of us less safe by giving drug dealers something to lose
5. causing turf wars between drug dealers
6. tremendously enhancing the profitability of selling drugs
7. making drugs more attractive to people with "rebellious" natures
8. corrupting police because of the huge amounts of money involved
9. getting innocent bystanders killed
10. destroying the lives of people for no good reason

Prohibition didn't work during the 30s. It isn't working, now. Every year thousands of people are killed because of turf wars (the reason for most of the mob hits during prohibition), shootouts with police, and the whole outlaw culture that has arisen from the drug dealer culture ("Who you dissin', beeyotch?!? BANG You a dead motherf#*ker, now, ain't you"). People dying because one of the heroin balloons they swallowed in Bogota ruptured just after getting off the plane here. People dying because they were behind a drug dealer when they got hit in a drive-by. People dying because the police invade the wrong home in the middle of the night and the homeowner dies after shooting at police because he thought they were home invaders because the Police just slammed through the door. People die because they buy from "some guy" that cut their cocaine with rat poison or drain cleaner. People die because they can't buy clean needles to shoot their heroine. So they "share" a needle with someone who has Hepatitis C or AIDS or syphilis and die from that. People get killed because they break into someone's home trying to steal something to sell so they can buy drugs (at greatly inflated prices because they are illegal). People's homes get broken into and people get killed or maimed by drug addicts who are just trying to get money for more drugs. Drugs they could afford if they weren't illegal.

The prisons are full of hardened violent criminals. So we take a guy who's a senior in college and stick him in one of those institutions because he dared sell some pot to an undercover cop. If he survives he will be a hardened criminal when he gets out. He will most likely have been sodomized in prison (at the threat of death) by other inmates. He will despise law enforcement and government for ruining his life. He can't get back into college. He can't get a decent job. All because he was branded a "drug dealer" by the cops. His only recourse in many cases is to turn to a life of crime because he is "branded" for the rest of his life and must live with the stigma of being both an "ex-con" and "a drug dealer".

Every prison in the US has problems with drugs infiltrating the prison inmate population. If the police can't keep drugs out of our prisons (a completely controlled environment), how can anyone actually believe that the "war on drugs" will end in anything but abject failure?

Anyone who believes that this "war on drugs" can be won is, in my view, insane. After all, what is the definition of insanity? To keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome. It's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that interdiction and enforcement isn't working. It does not deal with the demand for drugs. After over 40 years the problem is worse than ever. Every user or dealer you lock up is instantly replaced. Usually by more than one.

If you take the money out of drug dealing you take out the incentive for most dealers because they are after "easy money". Drug dealers can make a lot of money because they deal in illicit substances. If the profit goes away because you can legally buy cocaine at the local drugstore for just a few bucks the drug dealers will cease to sell drugs. They buy guns and have turf wars because they are protecting their profits. Without the profits from illicit drugs they have no turf to protect and no way to buy guns and other arms. Everyone is automatically safer because of that.

People who use drugs use them because they want to. In spite of the fact that it could land them in prison. They want the drugs more than they fear being caught and imprisoned. Why is that? Because they are addicted? What about the ones that have never tried cocaine before? What about the marijuana users who aren't addicted to anything? How many would give up the drugs if they could? Many probably would. But they can't do it on their own if they are addicted.

Alcoholics are a danger to others when they drive and many become violent when they are drunk. But we realized that we can't stop people from drinking by making it illegal. Nearly everything that you can say about drugs can be said about alcohol, too. But we have a double standard.

People DO form dependencies on alcohol. It's not as strong as with other drugs. People do NOT form dependency on marijuana. But it's illegal and alcohol isn't. Why is that?

It's time, I think, that we took a serious look at the "war on drugs" and what it is doing to our people and what it has done to our nation in terms of eroding our civil rights. Look at our prisons. Look at our cemetaries. Look at our law enforcement agencies (including the DEA, a behemoth whose sole existence is as a national vice squad). Look at how much money we spend trying to squeeze jello. Isn't time we tried something different? Wouldn't that money be better spent trying to deal with people's addictions rather than locking them up like common criminals and ruining their lives even further?

I really like the PSAs I've seen recently about the guy who has his friends on the couch because they're stoned. He does everything for them because they're stoned all the time. I think this type of approach is better than the threat of being arrested for it.

I'd love to see a series of PSAs by rock stars, pro athletes and other celebrities talking about what doing drugs did to them. How it screwed up their lives. Kids look at celebrities are role models. And if they 'fess up about how easily they got hooked, how the drugs screwed up their lives and how hard it was to kick even when they wanted to kick it, I think it would go a long way to stopping many would-be users from taking the plunge.

If anybody wants to disagree, go ahead. But I don't think there are any really cogent arguments for continuing along the path we're on. The current path appears to be just a circle.

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