Ahhh Yes: Just another “War” that America has lost; this one the so-called “War On Drugs.”
But one must ask that old lawyerly question: CUI BONO? Who benefits? Who benefits from Drugs being illegal in the first place?
Well obviously, the producers and distributors of all those Drugs. But just as importantly, all those federal, state, and local government drug enforcement agencies and their efforts waging that “War.”
What would happen if, all of a sudden, all Drugs were perfectly legal, and all that money spent by all those agencies on that lost War On Illegal Drugs was spent on education aimed at prevention and, when that failed, on treatment and rehabilitation?
It would be interesting to see how the street price for illegal marijuana in every state that has legalized the “dispensary” purchase of weed has fared compared to what it was when selling and buying it was illegal. And compared to those states where the only way it can be bought is still illegally on the street.
One would have thought that America’s experience with the 18th Amendment and Prohibition back in the 1920s and early 30s would have taught somebody something, eh?
No, Bill. The dealers won and still win. And, despite their total and complete failure, the "enforcers" won and still win. One has to wonder if the dealers and enforcers aren't working together on this.
First of all, Bill, You will get no argument from me about Big Pharma. It is a key and critical component ~ along with Big Medicine and Big Tort Law ~ of the Ruling Political Class’s arsenal; along with the Banking-Finance-Printing Press Web, the Techno-Infotainment Matrix, Big Oil and Big Food, the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon, and, of course, the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex.
In any event, it would be interesting to explore what sorts of connections exist between Big Pharma and the Illegal Drug business, eh?
And second of all, after i sent my response and then pondered a bit, i realized that it was meant as a joke. And i get Your point completely.
My point was and is that drugs ~ legal or illegal ~ don’t just magically become available to a consumer. Somebody has to produce, distribute, market, and sell those drugs.
And the primary difference between legal and illegal drugs is the nature and the degree of the government’s involvement in that whole process of getting that drug from the producer to the consumer.
For legal drugs, there are the rules and regulations dictated by the Food and Drug Administration. And for illegal drugs, there is the Drug Enforcement Administration and its War On Drugs.
And that War is going very well for both drug gangs/cartels and everybody in that business down to the simple street dealer.
And it’s also going very well for the losers as well, since America has a terrible drug problem that must be eliminated, and despite its total failure to date, the DEA needs, deserves, and gets more and more money to wage its very own Mission Impossible. And of course. there is the US military’s involvement in the whole WOD thing, but that’s a separate rant.
Another thing that would be interesting to explore would be what sorts of connections exist between the DEA and the military, and that same Illegal Drug business.
Most so called overdoses are really reactions from a least two drugs. If someone takes heroin laced with fentanyl as well as cocaine and speed, chances are not good that they will see a new day.
"Coming to grips with the real news would require thought... "
But that's an anathema to corporate media. A thinking public is the worst threat they could face. Much better to keep them amused or emotionally aroused.
A very strong argument can be made that a ~ if not The ~ primary reason a "thinking public" does not exist in America is because of its Public Education System, which is intended to produce not Citizens who can think for themselves, but Citizens who can swallow and regurgitate whatever The System requires of them to become productive cogs in the Economic System.
A "thinking public" is not a "threat" to corporate media as such, but to America's Ruling Political Class. Of which that corporate media is that RPC's primary propaganda agent and tool.
i graduated from public high school in June, 1964, Dennis.
Given that 1] a substantial number of folks who graduated around that time did indeed think for themselves about the Vietnam War; and 2] given how few Americans of subsequent generations have thought for themselves about ~ the most obvious example ~ first the First Gulf War [Kuwait/Iraq in 1991] and since then about 9/11 and The Forever War from Afghanistan to Ukraine and soon with China…:
Given all that, i think and maintain that America’s Public Education System has ~ since a bit after i graduated ~ indeed failed to turn out Citizens and Voter-Taxpayers who do ~ or even Can ~ indeed Think For Themselves. Particularly when it comes to War. But on a whole number of other matters as well. Also particularly when it comes Politics and Economics.
Or more accurately, that the PES has not produced nearly ENOUGH of those Citizen/Voter-Taxpayers to prevent this nation from being in the current state that it is in.
Your LOL indicates that You have something to offer on this whole matter, as well. lookin 4ward 2 it [as i’d say if i was texting this].
A thing that used to drive me crazy with the new kids we hired in our Construction Management office - no matter what assignment you gave to these newly graduated "engineers", and I use the word advisedly, their approach was invariably to open their laptop computer - rest their fingers on the keyboard - "OK, I'm ready!"
Whenever this old fogey (CAUTION: RETIRED. KNOWS EVERYTHING AND HAS PLENTY OF TIME TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT! LOL) visits these job offices nowadays I see twice the number of kids running the exact same jobs as we used to run.
All sitting behind huge screens, some have two screens(!), with their headphones on, beavering away. Garbage in garbage out!
Plus, (5) new positions we never had. The Enviromental Officer. The Safety Officer. The Human Resources Officer (Gawd I hate that term!) The Computer IT guy. And the Company Attorney. (Not only for dealing with legal problems with our client, but for when one of our snowflake employees sued us for a boss using the wrong pronoun, or not having the right quota of women/ethnicity/LBJQTZ folks.)
And if the power goes out, every single person in that office can't do his/her job and are all out in the parking lot having a cigarette until the power comes back on!
I have told the story about asking for a pencil and drafting paper to show them a sketch of how it really should be done. No pencils! If you want a piece of paper - go run yourself a piece out the big computer printing plotter. We don't have paper pads!
And I would not be an old fogey if I did not insist that we ran the jobs much better back in the day! LOL.
And of course, we never ever screwed up! And it was taken for granted the boss was having an affair with the office gal who wore miniskirts to work. And most people smoked in the office! And we never had to pass a pee-test! And every Friday night after work in the office we drunk until we were too drunk to drive home - but we did anyway!
And we wore white polo shirts proudly embroidered with our Company logo - not rainbow-colored tee shirts and jeans, and had green hair, tattoos and nose rings! LOL
I'm struggling thru each day my friend. Not much fun. But I'm still alive thanks to modern medicine. Take care.
I just came across a different theory about the purpose of the war on drugs campaign. I've never heard this before, but maybe you have. It was on Episode 174 of Citations Needed podcast. (Note this podcast is A+ awesome half the time, the other half, I can't stand it. Lol. They're leftists who actually care about real left issues like economic equality, but they sometimes talk identity politics.)
In this particular episode, the hosts talk about how the government funded a lot of anti-drug television. Often the government would actually write an anti-drug episode for a popular sitcom, and it would be aired (in exchange for money, of course.)
The podcast hosts suggest that a major part of this TV and ad campaign was NOT in response to actual drug use, but rather to soak the public mind with the idea that drug use was a problem that necessitated a military response. In the 80s and 90s, drug use was nowhere near the problem it is now.
So here's the kicker. Remember how our government likes to "promote democracy" in certain countries? Like how Cuba's successful revolution drove our rulers mad? Remember Panama? Nicaragua? Costa Rica? I'm not versed enough to recite all the times the US engaged in military campaigns in Central and South America, but I do know that these were often sold to the public as "fighting the drug war."
You can't sell decades of military invasions, especially ones so geographically close to the US, if Americans don't believe there's something very bad going on in those countries. The drug was was perfect. Like the war on terror. A perfect wack-a-mole war. Neverending.
Please note I do not discount people who had drug problems in the 80s, or the possible (likely?) government involvement in the crack epidemic. My mother was an alcoholic in the 80s, so I know how drugs can destroy everything. Trust me, I know. Probably one of the reasons why I've always been the questioning type. I saw the destruction of alcohol, yet it was perfectly legal. A 10 year old can get very confused by that kind of inconsistency!
So, in the 80s, Americans didn't realize we had a drug problem because by and large we did not have a drug problem. And that is why those random TV episodes were so absurd to watch. But their purpose was to prime the public to accept military interventions.
There is alcoholism and drug addiction in my extended family as well. Yes, it's all very real, as is the suffering.
The problem comes with defining it as a "war." As if drugs are an enemy that can be defeated. The concept of "war" drives a militarized response. If you truly want a forever war, declare one on drugs.
Why not define drugs as a major health crisis requiring a coordinated response centered on education, treatment, housing, counseling, etc. Why is it turned over to law enforcement and the military, and of course the court system and prisons? Well, we know why. The war on drugs is never going to end and is a source of money and power to the police, prisons, the military, and the whole drug war complex.
In that "drug war," we've lost more than one million Americans to ODs in the last 20 years. A Vietnam every year in terms of KIA. Yet nothing ever changes. No new approaches. Just more of the same. More SWAT teams, more funding, more prisons.
It would be very interesting to see how this has turned out…:
OREGON TAKES THE LEAD ON ENDING THE WAR ON DRUGS by Hannah Cox / Foundation for Economic Education 111020
Last week, Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession of all drugs. Ballot Measure 110 passed with a whopping 59 percent of the vote.
Numerous other states voted to legalize recreational cannabis on Election Day as well, namely Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota. Across the board, voters struck down policies that supported the War on Drugs at every opportunity they were given.
But Oregon’s initiative is by far the most sweeping progression we’ve seen on this front to date. It’s also different from actions taken in other states because THE VOTE DID NOT LEGALIZE DRUGS, BUT RATHER DECRIMINALIZED THEM. THIS MEANS IT REMOVED CRIMINAL PENALTIES ATTACHED TO THE POSSESSION OF DRUGS BUT DIDN’T ALL-OUT LEGALIZE THEM—A VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION.
Your question "Why not define drugs as a major health crisis requiring a coordinated response centered on education, treatment, housing, counseling, etc" mirrors the comment i made earlier:
"What would happen if, all of a sudden, all Drugs were perfectly legal, and all that money spent by all those agencies on that lost War On Illegal Drugs was spent on education aimed at prevention and, if and/or when that failed, on treatment and rehabilitation?"
The first step toward the simplest. easiest, and most effective way to deal with America's "Drug Problem" ~ and to end the War On Drugs ~ would be exactly that: To make all currently illegal Drugs legal, from whatever the source.
That would eliminate the costs to wholesale producers and distributors [ie, the cartels and their gangs] and retail dealers [ie, the folks selling on the street] for counter-anti-drug enforcement security.
And more importantly, it would eliminate the costs to taxpayers for federal, state, and local government anti-drug enforcement agencies and their activities and actions.
The DEA's FY 2021 budget was $3.28 billion [ https://www.dea.gov/data-and-statistics/staffing-and-budget ]. Chump Change compared to the rest of the federal budget for sure, but $3.28 billion, nonetheless. And of course, that does not include the other costs at the federal, state, and local levels for their roles in waging the War On Drugs.
Simply put: The best way to end the failed War On Drugs is to end the government's justification for and ability to wage it.
A very interesting hypothesis, indeed, Rachel. Thanks for sharing.
The more i think about it, the more this country [and planet] needs a Daniel Ellsburg of The War On Drugs [along, of course, with one(s) for The Forever War from Afghanistan to Ukraine and soon, China].
On the other hand, i'm not sure this government needed to "sell" any of its military activities in the 80s to the American People. Especially in Latin America.
i am reminded of the vision articulated by President William Taft in 1912: “The day is not far distant when three Stars and Stripes at three equidistant points will mark our territory,
one at the North Pole, one at the Panama Canal, and one at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”
And i think that a lot of Americans in the 80s simply bought into and accepted that notion, and had no objection whatsoever to, for example, Ollie North's Crusades in Central America [If they even knew or cared about them at all]. Any more than they objected to Kennedy's Bay of Pigs GoatRope for essentially the same reason. After all, the USSR was still in business, there were Commies 90 miles off the coast of Florida, and those folks had visions of their own about who should control Latin America and, particularly, all its natural and human resources.
And i'm sorry to hear about Your Mom. It is very fortunate, tho, that You didn't do as so many children with alcoholic parents do and follow her down that road. But even if alcohol wasn't legal, anybody who wanted it could still get it, couldn't they? That should have been the ultimate lesson that America learned from its experiment with and experience of Prohibition in the 1920's and early 30s until that Constitutional Amendment was finally and mercifully repealed.
Indeed, your insight in 2016 describing the outlines of the "dystopic elements that characterize our American moment" is unfolding rapidly before our very eyes. Who needs factual news when you can satisfy yourself all day taking selfies, tweeting and texting, and posting videos of mindless nonsense on Instagram. All of this inanity was foretold back in 1985 in a critically important book (translated into 8 languages) written by Neil Postman with the apt title "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." A must read.
I read the Babylon Bee regularly. It's gotten to the point where the Babylon Bee and the news have merged into a new reality. Reality as farce. Or maybe farce as reality.
As usual, Ms Caitlin nails it completely. But she should have prefaced this with “Assuming that IS an election in 2024 [which at this point in The Game, folks, is not a sheerly safe bet]… :
THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF ALL TIME by Caitlin Johnstone 081423
The 2024 presidential election will be THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF ALL TIME, because if Americans don’t make the correct choice between the two candidates something terrible might happen to their country. The US might even turn into an abusive totalitarian dystopia where everyone’s mind is controlled by propaganda engineered to shape them into unthinking gear-turners for a globe-spanning empire.
People on one side of the partisan divide are being trained to fear a future fascist takeover.
People on the other side are being trained to fear a future communist takeover.
Both sides are being trained to overlook the oligarchic totalitarian takeover that has already occurred.
Always loved Fahrenheit 451, as a real Fireman contemplating the future ones who paradoxically and ironically start Fires instead of putting them out... Genius "Bradburied Treasure" we call it . My fave. Sci.Fi Writer bar none. And.., how the Resistance Exile Members became "Classic" Books in the Ending-- a glimmer of hope...! Montag becoming the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Glenn Greenwald absolutely nails it in this explanation of exactly How and Why BRICS constitutes an existential threat to the Global Hegemonic Order led by the US [the G7, EU, IMF, etc] at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNsXFCTkXjk&t=5s .
Particularly interesting is his linking of how the rest of the world is reacting and responding to America's war in Ukraine with how the rest of the world reacted and responded to the US War of Revenge, Retaliation, and Retribution in Afghanistan following 9/11, and then in Iraq in 2003 in search of all those WMDs.
And How and Why that can only be good news for BRICS and bad news for the US and its GHO.
The simplest yet most accurate way to describe and explain all this, Bill, is that the “Decline” of The American Empire has ended, and that the “Fall” of that Empire has begun.
And with it, the Fall of the nation-state of the United States of America has also begun, signaling the beginning of the end of that Experiment called “America” that began on July 4, 1776.
And with each passing day, the likelihood that that nation-state will survive and still exist to celebrate on its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026 grows dimmer and dimmer.
And finally, even if that nation-state still technically exists 1,056 days from today, it is virtually guaranteed that the American People will have very little, if anything, to celebrate about anything.
"Sleeper" Woody Allen's hilarious Sci.Fi Comedy of 1973 lives minus the "Orgasmatron" of course, but they're trying to duplicate one. lol And the equally Classic "Rollerball" the original from 1975-- the Corporate controlled society, no personal free will, and no God! Filed under as the Doobie Brothers sing it "World Gone Crazy"
Speaking of soma, more than one million Americans have died of drug overdoses in the last 20 years, most of those from the opioid epidemic.
Huxley, I think, saw soma as a safe tranquilizer. We've done him one better by making it a mass killer, which is consistent with dystopia.
Ahhh Yes: Just another “War” that America has lost; this one the so-called “War On Drugs.”
But one must ask that old lawyerly question: CUI BONO? Who benefits? Who benefits from Drugs being illegal in the first place?
Well obviously, the producers and distributors of all those Drugs. But just as importantly, all those federal, state, and local government drug enforcement agencies and their efforts waging that “War.”
What would happen if, all of a sudden, all Drugs were perfectly legal, and all that money spent by all those agencies on that lost War On Illegal Drugs was spent on education aimed at prevention and, when that failed, on treatment and rehabilitation?
It would be interesting to see how the street price for illegal marijuana in every state that has legalized the “dispensary” purchase of weed has fared compared to what it was when selling and buying it was illegal. And compared to those states where the only way it can be bought is still illegally on the street.
One would have thought that America’s experience with the 18th Amendment and Prohibition back in the 1920s and early 30s would have taught somebody something, eh?
The drugs won.
No, Bill. The dealers won and still win. And, despite their total and complete failure, the "enforcers" won and still win. One has to wonder if the dealers and enforcers aren't working together on this.
Well, it was meant as a joke, Jeff. We waged a war on drugs and the drugs won. And they're still winning.
Actually, the real winners are the legal drug pushers, AKA Big Pharma.
First of all, Bill, You will get no argument from me about Big Pharma. It is a key and critical component ~ along with Big Medicine and Big Tort Law ~ of the Ruling Political Class’s arsenal; along with the Banking-Finance-Printing Press Web, the Techno-Infotainment Matrix, Big Oil and Big Food, the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon, and, of course, the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex.
In any event, it would be interesting to explore what sorts of connections exist between Big Pharma and the Illegal Drug business, eh?
And second of all, after i sent my response and then pondered a bit, i realized that it was meant as a joke. And i get Your point completely.
My point was and is that drugs ~ legal or illegal ~ don’t just magically become available to a consumer. Somebody has to produce, distribute, market, and sell those drugs.
And the primary difference between legal and illegal drugs is the nature and the degree of the government’s involvement in that whole process of getting that drug from the producer to the consumer.
For legal drugs, there are the rules and regulations dictated by the Food and Drug Administration. And for illegal drugs, there is the Drug Enforcement Administration and its War On Drugs.
And that War is going very well for both drug gangs/cartels and everybody in that business down to the simple street dealer.
And it’s also going very well for the losers as well, since America has a terrible drug problem that must be eliminated, and despite its total failure to date, the DEA needs, deserves, and gets more and more money to wage its very own Mission Impossible. And of course. there is the US military’s involvement in the whole WOD thing, but that’s a separate rant.
Another thing that would be interesting to explore would be what sorts of connections exist between the DEA and the military, and that same Illegal Drug business.
Most so called overdoses are really reactions from a least two drugs. If someone takes heroin laced with fentanyl as well as cocaine and speed, chances are not good that they will see a new day.
"Coming to grips with the real news would require thought... "
But that's an anathema to corporate media. A thinking public is the worst threat they could face. Much better to keep them amused or emotionally aroused.
A very strong argument can be made that a ~ if not The ~ primary reason a "thinking public" does not exist in America is because of its Public Education System, which is intended to produce not Citizens who can think for themselves, but Citizens who can swallow and regurgitate whatever The System requires of them to become productive cogs in the Economic System.
A "thinking public" is not a "threat" to corporate media as such, but to America's Ruling Political Class. Of which that corporate media is that RPC's primary propaganda agent and tool.
"Learn to earn," Jeff. Not to think and to challenge and change.
Jeff, when was the last time you attended the Public Education System my friend? LOL
i graduated from public high school in June, 1964, Dennis.
Given that 1] a substantial number of folks who graduated around that time did indeed think for themselves about the Vietnam War; and 2] given how few Americans of subsequent generations have thought for themselves about ~ the most obvious example ~ first the First Gulf War [Kuwait/Iraq in 1991] and since then about 9/11 and The Forever War from Afghanistan to Ukraine and soon with China…:
Given all that, i think and maintain that America’s Public Education System has ~ since a bit after i graduated ~ indeed failed to turn out Citizens and Voter-Taxpayers who do ~ or even Can ~ indeed Think For Themselves. Particularly when it comes to War. But on a whole number of other matters as well. Also particularly when it comes Politics and Economics.
Or more accurately, that the PES has not produced nearly ENOUGH of those Citizen/Voter-Taxpayers to prevent this nation from being in the current state that it is in.
Your LOL indicates that You have something to offer on this whole matter, as well. lookin 4ward 2 it [as i’d say if i was texting this].
A thing that used to drive me crazy with the new kids we hired in our Construction Management office - no matter what assignment you gave to these newly graduated "engineers", and I use the word advisedly, their approach was invariably to open their laptop computer - rest their fingers on the keyboard - "OK, I'm ready!"
Hope you are doing well Jeff.
Heh. Yeah, i can see how that could and would drive You crazy, Dennis.
But let me ask You this: Once they got their assignment, how close did they come to completing it and meeting Your requirements?
And i'm doing well; Lo n Slo, but Well. Thankee for asking. And how're You doing?
I've answered this before on BV's Jeff.
Whenever this old fogey (CAUTION: RETIRED. KNOWS EVERYTHING AND HAS PLENTY OF TIME TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT! LOL) visits these job offices nowadays I see twice the number of kids running the exact same jobs as we used to run.
All sitting behind huge screens, some have two screens(!), with their headphones on, beavering away. Garbage in garbage out!
Plus, (5) new positions we never had. The Enviromental Officer. The Safety Officer. The Human Resources Officer (Gawd I hate that term!) The Computer IT guy. And the Company Attorney. (Not only for dealing with legal problems with our client, but for when one of our snowflake employees sued us for a boss using the wrong pronoun, or not having the right quota of women/ethnicity/LBJQTZ folks.)
And if the power goes out, every single person in that office can't do his/her job and are all out in the parking lot having a cigarette until the power comes back on!
I have told the story about asking for a pencil and drafting paper to show them a sketch of how it really should be done. No pencils! If you want a piece of paper - go run yourself a piece out the big computer printing plotter. We don't have paper pads!
And I would not be an old fogey if I did not insist that we ran the jobs much better back in the day! LOL.
And of course, we never ever screwed up! And it was taken for granted the boss was having an affair with the office gal who wore miniskirts to work. And most people smoked in the office! And we never had to pass a pee-test! And every Friday night after work in the office we drunk until we were too drunk to drive home - but we did anyway!
And we wore white polo shirts proudly embroidered with our Company logo - not rainbow-colored tee shirts and jeans, and had green hair, tattoos and nose rings! LOL
I'm struggling thru each day my friend. Not much fun. But I'm still alive thanks to modern medicine. Take care.
Bill and Jg, or anybody-
I just came across a different theory about the purpose of the war on drugs campaign. I've never heard this before, but maybe you have. It was on Episode 174 of Citations Needed podcast. (Note this podcast is A+ awesome half the time, the other half, I can't stand it. Lol. They're leftists who actually care about real left issues like economic equality, but they sometimes talk identity politics.)
In this particular episode, the hosts talk about how the government funded a lot of anti-drug television. Often the government would actually write an anti-drug episode for a popular sitcom, and it would be aired (in exchange for money, of course.)
The podcast hosts suggest that a major part of this TV and ad campaign was NOT in response to actual drug use, but rather to soak the public mind with the idea that drug use was a problem that necessitated a military response. In the 80s and 90s, drug use was nowhere near the problem it is now.
So here's the kicker. Remember how our government likes to "promote democracy" in certain countries? Like how Cuba's successful revolution drove our rulers mad? Remember Panama? Nicaragua? Costa Rica? I'm not versed enough to recite all the times the US engaged in military campaigns in Central and South America, but I do know that these were often sold to the public as "fighting the drug war."
You can't sell decades of military invasions, especially ones so geographically close to the US, if Americans don't believe there's something very bad going on in those countries. The drug was was perfect. Like the war on terror. A perfect wack-a-mole war. Neverending.
Please note I do not discount people who had drug problems in the 80s, or the possible (likely?) government involvement in the crack epidemic. My mother was an alcoholic in the 80s, so I know how drugs can destroy everything. Trust me, I know. Probably one of the reasons why I've always been the questioning type. I saw the destruction of alcohol, yet it was perfectly legal. A 10 year old can get very confused by that kind of inconsistency!
So, in the 80s, Americans didn't realize we had a drug problem because by and large we did not have a drug problem. And that is why those random TV episodes were so absurd to watch. But their purpose was to prime the public to accept military interventions.
Here's the episode:
https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-174-how-your-favorite-1990s-very-special-anti-drug-episode-was-probably-funded-by-the-us-government
There is alcoholism and drug addiction in my extended family as well. Yes, it's all very real, as is the suffering.
The problem comes with defining it as a "war." As if drugs are an enemy that can be defeated. The concept of "war" drives a militarized response. If you truly want a forever war, declare one on drugs.
Why not define drugs as a major health crisis requiring a coordinated response centered on education, treatment, housing, counseling, etc. Why is it turned over to law enforcement and the military, and of course the court system and prisons? Well, we know why. The war on drugs is never going to end and is a source of money and power to the police, prisons, the military, and the whole drug war complex.
In that "drug war," we've lost more than one million Americans to ODs in the last 20 years. A Vietnam every year in terms of KIA. Yet nothing ever changes. No new approaches. Just more of the same. More SWAT teams, more funding, more prisons.
It would be very interesting to see how this has turned out…:
OREGON TAKES THE LEAD ON ENDING THE WAR ON DRUGS by Hannah Cox / Foundation for Economic Education 111020
Last week, Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession of all drugs. Ballot Measure 110 passed with a whopping 59 percent of the vote.
Numerous other states voted to legalize recreational cannabis on Election Day as well, namely Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota. Across the board, voters struck down policies that supported the War on Drugs at every opportunity they were given.
But Oregon’s initiative is by far the most sweeping progression we’ve seen on this front to date. It’s also different from actions taken in other states because THE VOTE DID NOT LEGALIZE DRUGS, BUT RATHER DECRIMINALIZED THEM. THIS MEANS IT REMOVED CRIMINAL PENALTIES ATTACHED TO THE POSSESSION OF DRUGS BUT DIDN’T ALL-OUT LEGALIZE THEM—A VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION.
Continued at https://fee.org/articles/oregon-takes-the-lead-on-ending-the-war-on-drugs/ . EMPHASIS added.
Great minds think alike, eh Bill?
Your question "Why not define drugs as a major health crisis requiring a coordinated response centered on education, treatment, housing, counseling, etc" mirrors the comment i made earlier:
"What would happen if, all of a sudden, all Drugs were perfectly legal, and all that money spent by all those agencies on that lost War On Illegal Drugs was spent on education aimed at prevention and, if and/or when that failed, on treatment and rehabilitation?"
The first step toward the simplest. easiest, and most effective way to deal with America's "Drug Problem" ~ and to end the War On Drugs ~ would be exactly that: To make all currently illegal Drugs legal, from whatever the source.
That would eliminate the costs to wholesale producers and distributors [ie, the cartels and their gangs] and retail dealers [ie, the folks selling on the street] for counter-anti-drug enforcement security.
And more importantly, it would eliminate the costs to taxpayers for federal, state, and local government anti-drug enforcement agencies and their activities and actions.
The DEA's FY 2021 budget was $3.28 billion [ https://www.dea.gov/data-and-statistics/staffing-and-budget ]. Chump Change compared to the rest of the federal budget for sure, but $3.28 billion, nonetheless. And of course, that does not include the other costs at the federal, state, and local levels for their roles in waging the War On Drugs.
Simply put: The best way to end the failed War On Drugs is to end the government's justification for and ability to wage it.
A very interesting hypothesis, indeed, Rachel. Thanks for sharing.
The more i think about it, the more this country [and planet] needs a Daniel Ellsburg of The War On Drugs [along, of course, with one(s) for The Forever War from Afghanistan to Ukraine and soon, China].
On the other hand, i'm not sure this government needed to "sell" any of its military activities in the 80s to the American People. Especially in Latin America.
i am reminded of the vision articulated by President William Taft in 1912: “The day is not far distant when three Stars and Stripes at three equidistant points will mark our territory,
one at the North Pole, one at the Panama Canal, and one at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”
And i think that a lot of Americans in the 80s simply bought into and accepted that notion, and had no objection whatsoever to, for example, Ollie North's Crusades in Central America [If they even knew or cared about them at all]. Any more than they objected to Kennedy's Bay of Pigs GoatRope for essentially the same reason. After all, the USSR was still in business, there were Commies 90 miles off the coast of Florida, and those folks had visions of their own about who should control Latin America and, particularly, all its natural and human resources.
And i'm sorry to hear about Your Mom. It is very fortunate, tho, that You didn't do as so many children with alcoholic parents do and follow her down that road. But even if alcohol wasn't legal, anybody who wanted it could still get it, couldn't they? That should have been the ultimate lesson that America learned from its experiment with and experience of Prohibition in the 1920's and early 30s until that Constitutional Amendment was finally and mercifully repealed.
I imagine that Bradbury, Huxley, and Orwell would be appalled if they were alive today and saw how prescient they were.
Indeed, your insight in 2016 describing the outlines of the "dystopic elements that characterize our American moment" is unfolding rapidly before our very eyes. Who needs factual news when you can satisfy yourself all day taking selfies, tweeting and texting, and posting videos of mindless nonsense on Instagram. All of this inanity was foretold back in 1985 in a critically important book (translated into 8 languages) written by Neil Postman with the apt title "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." A must read.
I read the Babylon Bee regularly. It's gotten to the point where the Babylon Bee and the news have merged into a new reality. Reality as farce. Or maybe farce as reality.
As usual, Ms Caitlin nails it completely. But she should have prefaced this with “Assuming that IS an election in 2024 [which at this point in The Game, folks, is not a sheerly safe bet]… :
THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF ALL TIME by Caitlin Johnstone 081423
The 2024 presidential election will be THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF ALL TIME, because if Americans don’t make the correct choice between the two candidates something terrible might happen to their country. The US might even turn into an abusive totalitarian dystopia where everyone’s mind is controlled by propaganda engineered to shape them into unthinking gear-turners for a globe-spanning empire.
People on one side of the partisan divide are being trained to fear a future fascist takeover.
People on the other side are being trained to fear a future communist takeover.
Both sides are being trained to overlook the oligarchic totalitarian takeover that has already occurred.
Continued at https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-most-important-election-of-all .
Always loved Fahrenheit 451, as a real Fireman contemplating the future ones who paradoxically and ironically start Fires instead of putting them out... Genius "Bradburied Treasure" we call it . My fave. Sci.Fi Writer bar none. And.., how the Resistance Exile Members became "Classic" Books in the Ending-- a glimmer of hope...! Montag becoming the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Glenn Greenwald absolutely nails it in this explanation of exactly How and Why BRICS constitutes an existential threat to the Global Hegemonic Order led by the US [the G7, EU, IMF, etc] at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNsXFCTkXjk&t=5s .
Particularly interesting is his linking of how the rest of the world is reacting and responding to America's war in Ukraine with how the rest of the world reacted and responded to the US War of Revenge, Retaliation, and Retribution in Afghanistan following 9/11, and then in Iraq in 2003 in search of all those WMDs.
And How and Why that can only be good news for BRICS and bad news for the US and its GHO.
The simplest yet most accurate way to describe and explain all this, Bill, is that the “Decline” of The American Empire has ended, and that the “Fall” of that Empire has begun.
And with it, the Fall of the nation-state of the United States of America has also begun, signaling the beginning of the end of that Experiment called “America” that began on July 4, 1776.
And with each passing day, the likelihood that that nation-state will survive and still exist to celebrate on its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026 grows dimmer and dimmer.
And finally, even if that nation-state still technically exists 1,056 days from today, it is virtually guaranteed that the American People will have very little, if anything, to celebrate about anything.
"Sleeper" Woody Allen's hilarious Sci.Fi Comedy of 1973 lives minus the "Orgasmatron" of course, but they're trying to duplicate one. lol And the equally Classic "Rollerball" the original from 1975-- the Corporate controlled society, no personal free will, and no God! Filed under as the Doobie Brothers sing it "World Gone Crazy"
Jonathan E.!
Stay outta Tokyo! "Nippon Says 'Iye!' to Round-Eyed Devils"