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RE: How the War on Drugs is Fundamentally Flawed
You are 100% right in many of your conclusions, I would just add a couple more details that are not mentioned
- The US government spends billions of dollars on the so called war on drugs, making it second only to the military in unnecessary spending. Also making it a huge profit center for local, state, and federal gvts. - a revenue source they are not likely to give up without a fight.
- As you mentioned in your article, the war on drugs was begun, and still is perpetrated mostly against minority and lower income citizens, making it easy to get away with.
- All one has to do is look at the example of Portugal to see how drug use and abuse can be curtailed not by imprisonment, but by prevention and treatment. I has worked there for over a decade, and the US should take there programs, expand and improve upon them.
Ooh wait I forgot - the US doesnt lead the world in anything anymore, let alone something that would make them loose source of revenue. Gotta keep the machine working...
Cool post... Steem on...
Thank you for the upvote and comment @drdave. :c)
Those are very good points. I had a pretty good idea that the war on drugs itself is a very well tax-payer-sponsored initiative - though I wasn't aware that the war on drugs was second only to... well... the war-exporting machine that is the military.
A couple of million citizens is a heck of a minority to sweep under the carpet - and I sincerely doubt that most Americans are aware that things are that bad - and even if they are - how badly they compare with the rest of the World in that regards. The opinion-engineers keep them masterfully distracted.
I am honestly unaware of the programs that Portugal has been working on. Would you be so kind as to elaborate?
Thanks again. ^_^
About 10 years ago Portugal decriminalized ALL drugs. There are still penalties for drug "dealing", but for the people who occasionally use drugs and those addicted, there is no longer the risk of draconian prison sentences for non crime crimes (like in the US). They took all of the money being spent on enforcement and placed it into programs for treatment and prevention. Within 10 years there was a dramatic decrease in all drug related crime (you would have to look up the exact statistics), and the addiction rate fell substantially compared to pre-legalization levels. This is a model the whole world could learn from - not just the US...
That does sound like a far more reasonable approach than 'jail-them-all'.
It seems reflective of a difference in priorities.
Thank you for pointing this out to me. I would not have thought to look towards portugla as an example of how things might instead be done. :c)