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Jan. 11, 2005 I was struck by a wave of nostalgia when I read the articles by Max Burns regarding the War on Drugs (http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/jan/article048.html and http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/jan/article057.html). I very vividly remember feeling and thinking many of the same things that he wrote about and I recall thinking that we needed to get even tougher on drugs than we already were. In addition, it struck me that I was of that opinion when I was the same age as Mr. Burns. That was during the 1980s, when "Just Say No" was the message the government (through Nancy Reagan) was trying to get out to kids. Since then, this country has ratcheted up the rhetoric, vastly inflated the funding, and drastically increased the number of people incarcerated for drugs to no avail. I further agree with Mr. Burns that the single biggest problem with regards to drug use and abuse in our society is the easy access that our young people have to drugs. In fact, since Nixon coined the term "War on Drugs," over half of our young people have used illegal drugs before they leave high school in every single year since statistics have been collected. This is a massive problem, particularly when you consider that one of the major risk factors for problem drug use and addiction is age of first use. The younger you are when you first use drugs, the more likely you are to experience problem use later in life. Despite the funding increases, militarization of our police force, and ever more draconian laws, we have seen no drop in overall teen drug use and any "gains" we have made on some drugs (LSD, heroin) have been more than offset by increased usage of other drugs (MDMA, inhalants). During my time as a drug abuse counselor, I have seen thousands of people who have experienced problem usage and addiction. I have helped many of those people to recover from their addictions and go on to live happy, productive lives. During that time I also found that education, particularly open, completely honest education about the effects of drugs, is one of the other things that is positively correlated with avoiding problem drug use. It is amazing how many people (especially young people) are not educated in the least about drugs and parents' level of ignorance about drugs is stupifying. It is incredible how much good simple education does, but I have seen it over and over again in the various treatment facilities I have worked in. People who are educated as to the effects and risks of drugs will choose to avoid the more dangerous ones. This is another area in which Mr. Burns and I are in complete agreement. Unfortunately, the strategy that Mr. Burns espouses for dealing with drug use and abuse in our society strikes me as quite naive. I think that the fact that I am exactly double his age has given me some perspective that, being in his early adulthood, he simply does not have. In his first article, it seems to me that he is encouraging people to turn in all of the drug users they know. This seems to me to be way too much like a Gestapo tactic. It is estimated that over thirty million people in this country use illegal drugs once a year or more and incarcerating even half of those people would be a Herculean task, but would probably be necessary to drastically affect the number of people using drugs. Even if we were to jail that many, we have found it impossible to keep drugs out of our jails and prisons, which are supposed to be the most secure environments we can create. If we cannot even keep drugs out of our prisons, how are we realistically supposed to keep them off of the streets in a free society? This is not to say that we cannot keep drugs out of the hands of our children, which in my opinion should be the single biggest consideration when it comes to our drug policy. We have been able to limit our young people's access to other substances and we could use that model for our drug policy. In the '90s, the "We Card" program started and since its inception, we have seen teen use of alcohol and tobacco drop dramatically. In fact, in a recent study, teens report that it is easier to access illegal drugs than alcohol. We are making headway with tobacco and alcohol because we have a regulated market where only legitimate businesses are allowed to sell those substances. We could enjoy more success keeping currently illegal drugs from our young people if we set up a strong regulatory scheme and treat some drugs more or less like we do alcohol (albeit with stronger controls). Such a drug policy, centered around education and healthcare, could do far more to reduce the harms created by drug use and abuse than the prohibitionist approach we have now. In addition, all of the harms directly created by prohibition (violence, billions of dollars flowing to criminals and terrorists, tens of billions per year in funding, etc.) would begin to subside virtually overnight. Tax receipts would easily be able to fund treatment centers for people who experience problem usage, education programs for kids, and a licensing system for adults. Sales data could be combed by a computer to identify probable cases of abuse so that healthcare professionals can be alerted and the buyer can have treatment options presented to them. Overdose and cross reaction deaths would plummet as a result of the combination of clearly labeled, pure substances and education. Gangs, the Mafia, and other criminal organizations would lose $50 to $100 billion per year in funding. The violence created by our prohibitionist approach would ebb and the police would no longer be at war with many of the neighborhoods they are charged with protecting. The list of benefits to a regulated system is long and persuasive, but the number one benefit would be reducing the access that our young people have to some of the more dangerous substances known to man. ------------ About the author: Andy Moon has been studying the issue of drug use and abuse for nearly two decades. He worked for several years in drug abuse treatment facilities and has seen thousands of people recover from drug abuse and addiction. Email: andyjmoon@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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