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June 10, 2009
More of the Same
One of the more glaring examples of denial in our modern world is the degree to which the failure of America's war on drugs has been either ignored or systematically misinterpreted; not only by our own government, but by those of the UN nations bound by treaty to enforce it. With the exception of the Netherlands and Portugal, drug war heresy has been rare, and even where it has emerged, often been timid and reversed by American arm-twisting. Witness: Australia, Great Britain, and Canada.Given the mountain of available evidence, any pretense that the drug war has been even occasionally successful, or represents rational public policy, simply cannot stand serious scrutiny; yet the official pretense continues. Although the latest example of failure is again Mexico, one need not stop there; Colombia has been ravaged by violence since the cocaine trade began to expand in the Seventies while people in other “producer” nations, notably Burma and Afghanistan, are each paying a high price for their involuntary participation in illegal drug markets. In every instance, the violence and political instability can be related to one factor: huge revenues generated by thriving criminal markets.
Although I recently had hopes that the “change” being touted by the Obama Administration might include a measure of sanity with respect to marijuana prohibition (the crown jewel of police agencies surviving on their drug war failures), I am now convinced that hope was forlorn. However, I’m still curious as to how we will respond to the latest challenge from Mexico, a long-suffering nation where a repressive government is trying to please its obtuse Northern neighbor by enforcing a policy no one wants to admit is so unbelievably stupid.
Sooner or later, someone will have to wake up to reality; one hopes there will still be time to save us from our multiple other follies.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at June 10, 2009 05:30 PM