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April 13, 2009
An Illustrative Case?
As someone who started with a study of marijuana use, only to eventually become obsessed by the entire spectrum of human behavior, I found the following item an irresistible example of how large organizations–– in this case, the Chinese government–– manage to foolishly paint themselves into corners by passing laws with outcomes that were (or should have been) eminently predictable .The following item, from Discover Magazine, even has a bonus: the exchange of comments that follows is another unwitting example of the same futile authoritarian dynamic.
In other words, I'm not claiming to have a solution; only offering the suggestion that we started creating our own unintended consequences by creating “illegal drug" crime with the 1914 Harrison Act and then made it a lot worse by expanding its futility as a "war" with Nixon’s CSA in 1970.
It doen't take a lot of imagination to apply the same lessons to Somalian piracy, but I'm reasonably sure most won't care to do so.
Is this just another complaint? No. Rather, it's a reiteration of the idea that until we grasp the problem, we're unlikely to come up with a solution. A good example of classic drug war futility was aired only this morning on CNN.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at April 13, 2009 07:20 PM