Is the drug war a lost cause?

Question

It's been waged since 1914, more offficially since Nixon created the DEA in the early 70's. Yet drugs are still widely available. The lesson of prohibition is that if there is a societal demand, making it illegal emboldens criminal enterprise. Just because someone writes a law doesn't mean it's going to change thousands of years of human behavior.
Furthermore we currently have the world's largest prison population, more than China. A lot of those cases involve drugs. Does that say anything to you? Maybe we should try treatment facilities instead of bars. They also used to incarcerate the mentally ill, was that appropriate?
Laws not followed by the population are bad laws.

Thorgilr, you don't have to do me any favors. And you're response is extremely weak.

Answer 1

Follow the money. Anyone who thinks the war is really about interdiction is missing the incredible expenditures by our government in this area. As long as there is a market there will be a supply. Prohibition does nothing more than enrich and empower criminal enterprise. Drugs are bad, of this there can be no question, but failed policy does little to eradicate the problem. Add to this mandatory sentencing for drug offenses and all we are really accomplishing is higher taxes and the further stressing our over extended prison system. Meanwhile violent felons are being released onto society at alarming rate. If anyone can really show that there are positive benefits to the war on drugs I would love to hear them because I honestly do not see them.

Answer 2

Although I cannot stand you and consider shortboards weak I will answer your question.

Most treatment facilities are Jokes, places for Brittney spears to make amends and visit for a few weeks. They are not effective. Places like Columbia where drugs are very available and cheap Have most of the Populations poor addicted and strung out. Nothing but prostitution poverty and death. Making drugs legal is not an answer either. China SHOOTS many criminals. look at the records No need for Prisons just grave pits. Try and sell drugs in Bejing see if a long prison sentance is in your future.... Fewer and fewer teens are doing drugs. Yep Pot and Beer are still there but the harder stuff has lost appeal. the mentally Ill ARE incarcerated in a way putting a Hospital Gown on does not make it a Hospital and the sentances are usually life.

Answer 3

I do not agree with this, drugs cause massive
problems for societies as a whole, there are
so many crimes committed while people are
under the influence of drugs and alcohol, that
it is totally mindboggling, as for the jailhouse
rock story.....It is better to deal with some of the
people who get onto drugs at the bottom end
with fines therapy or treatment provided they
do not offend again....but, when they do you need
a 4 or three strike system there................................

Drugs are the single thing that cause most of
the prostitution among minors as well as majors...

Drug addiction and death are common amongst
the youth today, and in some respects taking
smaller doses will not cure the problem..................

China is tough on offenders and puts them to death, that is why they have a smaller jail population..................................................................

Drugs are the scourge of the crime, and law enforcement world today.........................................

I do not think that the mentally ill should be anywhere except in hospitals for them, but
saying that there is a lot of crime committed
by people claiming later that they are mentally
ill, when they are trying to get out of it with a
plea bargain.........................................................

Laws should be more stringent, but that being
said, there should not be a negation of loss of
freedoms that we love with them, they need
to look at certain laws regarding the sex industry,
trafficking for the industry, movement and crime
going across boarders between countries............

Prohibition was not only a problem in those days,
but caused a major headache, the thing is that
crime related to the trafficking of drugs people
involved in the drug trade, is not barely a headache, but a nightmare for law enforcement
agencies the world over............................................

Now the DEA is one of those agencies which works closely with the smuggling and drug and
related issues, they are making inroads as are
other law enforcement agencies the worldover...

Whether you can win the war on crime and drugs
is another issue, as one person is charged another opens up shop, might be an idea to burn
drug crops, and seize the properties of all those
involved in the industry, from the street dealers
to the very top of the criminal triangle......................

The eye opener, is that the more you do as law
enforcement. The more criminal and motivated
the dealers and druglords become.........................

Societal demand is a big issue, there are more
things that need to be done education wise, with
this regard there needs to be more exposure
of the deaths related to drugs, sweeping this
issue under the carpet can cause someone
not to know about it, more needs to be published
about the deaths of youth and people from drugs..........................................................................

They need to deal with drugdealers from a
primary school level, as that is when it starts...........

Crime fighting is the key to cleaning up a lot of
the things out there that are happening at present,
so is an order and education on social change,
need to be put in place............................................

Answer 4

I harshly disagree that it is an anarchist caused problem.... Anarchist are for the legalization of drugs, go figure.

No it is not a lost cause, it is doing exactly what it was intended to do. The intent is to criminalize a large portion of the population in order to fund a large list of government projects, reduce voting sector(feloney offenders), enlarge the size of government and reduce liberties of citizens, etc.

No it isn't a "lost" cause but it is a failure by definition of "drug war".

It is not a war on drugs, it is a WAR on PERSONAL FREEDOM, keep that in mind at all times, thank you.

Answer 5

Of course it is. It is not even a war, it is an immoral oppression by antichrists against good and upright.
Soon enough all these wars will be swept away and shoved up their makers and supporters keesters, in the meanwhile, be free, smoke an air joint if your in jail and cant get the good stuff and pray deliverance, it is on the way.

Answer 6

The War on Drugs is a lost cause, so yes. Why?
Because it is all to do with Supply and Demand, same economic principle, the price goes up when you take the supply off the market, the drugs become more valuable.
You have to get rid of the demand, How?
It will not be an overnight cure, you have to change the educational system and how we treat the impoverished.
The public schools are the place that children learn many things from other children that have been exposed to things. This influence creates peer groups either for protection or to fit in. I was exposed to marijuana when i was in the eighth grade, it was very easy to influence others, especially when I was their friend, I remember getting kids high that you would never thing would get high. I started getting high because my neighbor got me interested in getting high. I got high with the brightest kid in my school, the one with the highest SAT score, one of the most popular kids because he was so bright. Everybody envied him because he was a genius in Calculus. So, schools and neighborhoods are where most children get influenced to use drugs.
Drugs are easy to get, know matter how many people are arrested, they are available. You arrest one drug dealer, another one will spring up. Easy money.
I was 16 years old and growing pot. I didn't sell it, I smoked it with my friends, I was a loner until I discovered pot. My parents couldn't get me to read, until I discovered. "High Times", a pot magazine for growers. I became knowledgable about how to grow plants. I became pretty educated in hydroponics and lighting, feltilizer, etc. I had a green thumb.
What got me interested in pot was how I made lots of friends. What got me disinterested in drugs was how many people I knew took drugs that screwed them up. I remember being at a house getting stoned with a ten year old boy, a turn key kid, he made his house available when his mother had to work. Many high school kids visited his house after school. He was a good kid, he is in prison today.
I remember a very poor kid on my block, very nice boy. Years later, his face had a face of anger, he most likly got high on meth. When he was a baby, he lost his father do too an accident at the Mill that burned down, his mother was not the brightest and she had to raise three boys, they all got into drugs.
You see, the drug culture, from my experience is from kids not having anything to do. Look at the inner cities, the poorest areas are the worst, those kids dont have anything but the streets. Its where they learn about drugs, sex and violence. Just listen to the street talk in the music.
Drugs are the easiest, most available entertainment next to sex. When young minds dont have anything to do, they will find something to do. It should be the challenge for adults to be supportive for todays youth.
Also, public schools have to be changed, it is very unchallenging and boring. Sitting in the classroom all day listening to someone lecturing is the most boring crap there is. I never had any interest in school until I took an automotive class. I found hands-on learning is the best way, instead of learning everything out of a book or from someone else. How do you open someones mind to thinking if you just feed them crap all day that others thought about? I got fascinated about other peoples thoughts, only after thinking on my own. One good thing about pot, as long as its not being abused, is, you are not limited in imagination.
So if your the type that gets high, dont get high everyday, limit it only to special occasions. Don't go using every available drug, because you might get hooked and it might screw you up in the head. Just look at some of the homeless people talking to themselves, one of them is a friend of mine that got high on something and never came down. Also, you are not going to know if you are screwed up, does a crazy person know that they are crazy.

Answer 7

Yes it is, just like it is a lost cause trying to reverse global warming

Answer 8

I agree with you but what can you do about it, if i had the power i get rid of all the guns. that's what Australia did in the 90's. NO GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

yes it is, unlike our military----they have invaded and occupied-----where as, we can invade but CAN'T OCCUPY !!!!!!

Answer 10

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Statement By Rep Ron Paul -
'A Sad State Of Affairs'
Rep. Ron Paul
US House Of Representatives
10-27-1

Mr. Speaker, it breaks my heart to see what is happening to our country today. All Americans have grieved over the losses served on 9-11. The grief for those who lost loved ones is beyond description. These losses have precipitated unprecedented giving to help the families left behind. Unless one has suffered directly, it is difficult to fully comprehend the tragic and sudden loss of close friends and family.

There are some who, in addition to feeling this huge sense of personal loss that all Americans share, grieve for other serious and profound reasons. For instance, many thoughtful Americans are convinced that the tragedy of 9-11 was preventable. Since that may well be true, this provokes a tragic sadness, especially for those who understand how the events of 9-11 needlessly came about.

The reason why this is so sad and should be thoroughly understood is that so often the ones who suggest how our policies may have played a role in evoking the attacks are demonized as unpatriotic and are harshly dismissed as belonging to the ``blame America crowd.''

Those who are so anxious to condemn do not realize that the policies of the American Government, designed by politicians and bureaucrats, are not always synonymous with American ideals. The country is not the same as the Government. The spirit of America is hardly something for which the Government holds a monopoly on defining.

America's heart and soul is more embedded in our love of liberty, self-reliance, and tolerance than by our foreign policy, driven by powerful special interests with little regard for the Constitution. Throughout our early history, a policy of minding our own business and avoiding entangling alliances, as George Washington admonished, was more representative of American ideals than those we have pursued for the past 50 years. Some sincere Americans have suggested that our modern interventionist policy set the stage for the attacks of 9-11, and for this, they are condemned as being unpatriotic.

This compounds the sadness and heartbreak that some Americans are feeling. Threats, loss of jobs, censorship and public mockery have been heaped upon those who have made this suggestion. Freedom of expression and thought, the bedrock of the American Republic, is now too often condemned as something viciously evil. This should cause freedom-loving Americans to weep from broken hearts.

Another reason the hearts of many Americans are heavy with grief is because they dread what might come from the many new and broad powers the Government is demanding in the name of providing security. Daniel Webster once warned, ``Human beings will generally exercise power when they can get it, and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in popular governments under pretense of public safety.'' A strong case can be made that the Government regulations, along with a lack of private property responsibility, contributed to this tragedy, but what is proposed? More regulations and even a takeover of all airport security by the Government.

We are not even considering restoring the rights of pilots to carry weapons for self-defense as one of the solutions. Even though pilots once carried guns to protect the mail and armored truck drivers can still carry guns to protect money, protecting passengers with guns is prohibited on commercial flights. The U.S. Air Force can shoot down a wayward aircraft, but a pilot cannot shoot down an armed terrorist. It will be difficult to solve our problems with this attitude toward airport security.

Civil liberties are sure to suffer under today's tensions, with the people demanding that the politicians do something, anything. Should those who object to the rapid move toward massively increasing the size and scope of the Federal Government in local law enforcement be considered un-American because they defend the principles they truly understand to be American?

Any talk of spending restraint is now a thing of the past. We had one anthrax death, and we are asked the next day for a billion dollar appropriations to deal with the problem.

And a lot more will be appropriated before it is all over. What about the 40,000 deaths per year on government-run highways and the needless deaths associated with the foolish and misdirected war on drugs? Why should anyone be criticized for trying to put this in proper perspective?

Countless groups are now descending on Washington with their hands out. As usual, as with any disaster, this disaster is being parlayed into an opportunity, as one former Member of the Congress phrased it. The economic crisis that started a long time before 9-11 has contributed to the number of those now demanding Federal handouts.

But there is one business that we need not fear will go into a slump: The Washington lobbying industry. Last year, it spent $1.6 billion lobbying Congress. This year, it will spend much more. The bigger the disaster, the greater the number of vultures wo descend on Washington. When I see this happening, it breaks my heart, because liberty and America suffers, and it is all done in the name of justice, equality and security.

Emotions are running high in our Nation's capital, and in politics emotions are more powerful tools than reason and the rule of law. The use of force to serve special interests and help anyone who claims to be in need unfortunately is an acceptable practice. Obeying the restraints placed in the Constitution is seen as archaic and insensitive to the people's needs. But far too often the claims of responding to human tragedies are nothing more than politics as usual. While one group supports bailing out the corporations, another wants to prop up wages and jobs. One group supports federalizing tens of thousands of airport jobs to increase union membership, while another says we should subsidize corporate interests and keep the jobs private.

Envy and power drives both sides, the special interests of big business and the demands of the welfare redistributionists.

There are many other reasons to make one sad with all that is going on today. In spite of the fact that our government has done such a poor job protecting us and has no intention of changing the policy of meddling overseas, which has contributed to our problems, the people are more dependent on and more satisfied with government than they have been in decades, while demanding even more government control and intrusion in their daily lives.

It is aggravating to listen to the daily rhetoric regarding liberty and the Constitution while the same people participate in their destruction. It is aggravating to see all the money spent and civil liberties abused while the pilot's right to carry guns in self-defense is denied. It is even more aggravating to see our government rely on foreign AWACS aircraft to provide security to U.S. territory. A $325 billion military budget, and we cannot even patrol our own shores. This, of course, is just another sign of how little we are concerned about U.S. sovereignty and how willing we are to submit to international government.

It is certainly disappointing that our congressional leaders and administration have not considered using letters of marque and reprisal as an additional tool to root out those who participated in the 9-11 attacks. The difficulty in finding bin Laden and his supporters make marque and reprisal quite an appropriate option in this effort.

We already hear of plans to install and guarantee the next government of Afghanistan. Getting bin Laden and his gang is one thing, nation-building is quite another. Some of our trouble in the Middle East started years ago when our CIA put the Shah in charge of Iran.

It was 25 years before he was overthrown, and the hatred toward America continues to this day. Those who suffer from our intervention have long memories.

Our support for the less than ethical government of Saudi Arabia, with our troops occupying what most Muslims consider sacred land, is hardly the way to bring peace to the Middle East. A policy driven by our fear of losing control over the oil fields in the Middle East has not contributed to American Security. Too many powerful special interests drive our policy in this region, and this does little to help us preserve security for Americans here at home.

As we bomb Afghanistan, we continue to send foreign aid to feed the people suffering from the war. I strongly doubt if our food will get them to love us or even be our friends. There is no evidence that the starving receive the food. And too often it is revealed that it ends up in the hands of the military forces we are fighting. While we bomb Afghanistan and feed the victims, we lay plans to install the next government and pay for rebuilding the country. Quite possibly, the new faction we support will be no more trustworthy than the Taliban, to which we sent plenty of aid and weapons in the 1980s. That intervention in Afghanistan did not do much to win reliable friends in the region.

It just may be that Afghanistan would be best managed by several tribal factions, without any strong centralized government and without any outside influence, certainly not by the U.N. But then again, some claim that the proposed Western financed pipeline through northern Afghanistan can only happen after a strong centralized pro-Western government is put in place.

It is both annoying and sad that there is so little interest by anyone in Washington in free market solutions to the world's economic problems. True private ownership of property without regulation and abusive taxation is a thing of the past. Few understand how the Federal Reserve monetary policy causes the booms and the busts that, when severe, as now, only serve to enhance the prestige of the money managers while most politicians and Wall Streeters demand that the Fed inflate the currency at an even more rapid rate. Today's conditions give license to the politicians to spend our way out of recession, they hope.

One thing for sure, as a consequence of the recession and the 9-11 tragedy, is that big spending and deficits are alive and well. Even though we are currently adding to the national debt at the rate of $150 billion per year, most politicians still claim that Social Security is sound and has not been touched. At least the majority of American citizens are now wise enough to know better.

There is plenty of reason to feel heartbroken over current events. It is certainly not a surprise or illogical for people working in Washington to overreact to the anthrax scare. The feelings of despondency are understandable, whether due to the loss of lives, loss of property, fear of the next attack, or concerned at our own frantic efforts to enhance security will achieve little. But broken or sad hearts need not break our spirits nor impede our reasoning.

I happen to believe that winning this battle against the current crop of terrorists is quite achievable in a relatively short period of time. But winning the war over the long term is a much different situation. This cannot be achieved without a better understanding of the enemy and the geopolitics that drive this war. Even if relative peace is achieved with a battle victory over Osama bin Laden and his followers, other terrorists will appear from all corners of the world for an indefinite period of time if we do not understand the issues.

Changing our current foreign policy with wise diplomacy is crucial if we are to really win the war and restore the sense of tranquility to our land that now seems to be so far in our distant past. Our widespread efforts of peacekeeping and nation-building will only contribute to the resentment that drives the fanatics. Devotion to internationalism and a one-world government only exacerbates regional rivalries. Denying that our economic interests drive so much of what the West does against the East impedes any efforts to diffuse the world crisis that already has a number of Americans demanding nuclear bombs to be used to achieve victory. A victory based on this type of aggressive policy would be a hollow victory indeed.

I would like to draw analogy between the drug war and the war against terrorism. In the last 30 years, we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on a failed war on drugs. This war has been used as an excuse to attack our liberties and privacy. It has been an excuse to undermine our financial privacy while promoting illegal searches and seizures with many innocent people losing their lives and property. Seizure and forfeiture have harmed a great number of innocent American citizens.

Another result of this unwise war has been the corruption of many law enforcement officials. It is well known that with the profit incentives so high, we are not even able to keep drugs out of our armed prisons. Making our whole society a prison would not bring success to this floundering war on drugs. Sinister motives of the profiteers and gangsters, along with prevailing public ignorance, keeps this futile war going.

Illegal and artificially high priced drugs drive the underworld to produce, sell and profit from this social depravity. Failure to recognize that drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease rather than a crime, encourage the drug warriors in efforts that have not and will not ever work. We learned the hard way about alcohol prohibition and crime, but we have not yet seriously considered it in the ongoing drug war.

Corruption associated with the drug dealers is endless. It has involved our police, the military, border guards and the judicial system. It has affected government policy and our own CIA. The artificially high profits from illegal drugs provide easy access to funds for rogue groups involved in fighting civil wars throughout the world.

Ironically, opium sales by the Taliban and artificially high prices helped to finance their war against us. In spite of the incongruity, we rewarded the Taliban this spring with a huge cash payment for promises to eradicate some poppy fields. Sure.

For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved.

This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy. Those who support the IRS's efforts to collect maximum revenues and root out the underground economy, have welcomed this intrusion, even if the drug underworld grows in size and influence.

The drug war encourages violence. Government violence against nonviolent users is notorious and has led to the unnecessary prison overpopulation. Innocent taxpayers are forced to pay for all this so-called justice. Our eradication project through spraying around the world, from Colombia to Afghanistan, breeds resentment because normal crops and good land can be severely damaged. Local populations perceive that the efforts and the profiteering remain somehow beneficial to our own agenda in these various countries.

Drug dealers and drug gangs are a consequence of our unwise approach to drug usage. Many innocent people are killed in the crossfire by the mob justice that this war generates. But just because the laws are unwise and have had unintended consequences, no excuses can ever be made for the monster who would kill and maim innocent people for illegal profits. But as the violent killers are removed from society, reconsideration of our drug laws ought to occur.

A similar approach should be applied to our war on those who would terrorize and kill our people for political reasons. If the drug laws and the policies that incite hatred against the United States are not clearly understood and, therefore, never changed, the number of drug criminals and terrorists will only multiply.

Although this unwise war on drugs generates criminal violence, the violence can never be tolerated. Even if repeal of drug laws would decrease the motivation for drug dealer violence, this can never be an excuse to condone the violence. On the short term, those who kill must be punished, imprisoned, or killed. Long term though, a better understanding of how drug laws have unintended consequences is required if we want to significantly improve the situation and actually reduce the great harms drugs are doing to our society.

The same is true in dealing with those who so passionately hate us that suicide becomes a just and noble cause in their effort to kill and terrorize us. Without some understanding of what has brought us to the brink of a worldwide conflict in reconsidering our policies around the globe, we will be no more successful in making our land secure and free than the drug war has been in removing drug violence from our cities and towns.

Without some understanding why terrorism is directed towards the United States, we may well build a prison for ourselves with something called homeland security while doing nothing to combat the root causes of terrorism. Let us hope we figure this out soon. We have promoted a foolish and very expensive domestic war on drugs for more than 30 years. It has done no good whatsoever. I doubt our Republic can survive a 30-year period of trying to figure out how to win this guerilla war against terrorism. Hopefully, we will all seek the answers in these trying times with an open mind and understanding.

Comment

From Jerry L. Gardner
[e-mail]
10-29-1

Dear Jeff,

I am not sure just how to get in touch with Rep. Ron Paul, but I have been following his articles on your site. I just read, "A sad state of affairs," and I thought to myself, how on earth did this man ever get elected in America today? He is like listening to George Washington, Jefferson Davis, Thomas Jefferson, Nathan Hale, along with all the framers of our great constitution all at once. When I read Ron's articles, I feel like I am sitting in the midst of the original congress of our great United States, at the birthing of the greatest nation on earth, during the latter 1700s.

Ron Paul had to be elected by accident because there is no other in Washington, or at any State level politics that are his equal. What truth! What courage! A lamb in a den of lions. It takes guts to struggle against the currents of the contemporary political tide today. It takes tremendous courage to stand with the "few" patriots who speak out against wrong, and evil today, those who refuse to get caught up in mass, emotional hysterms."

This man makes me proud to be an American (and I'm not an easy man to impress) even when pride today is difficult to muster. We must remember, today the target is the constitution of the United States, tomorrow it will be the Holy Bible. George Washington told us in so many words, it is impossible to have one without the other.

Thank you
Representative Ron Paul.