How We(The US) Can Still Win The War With Drugs

OPENING--
I've sent this letter out to a number of organizations and individuals concerning the implementation of illicit recreational drugs into society. The biggest problem with illegal recreational drugs isn't the danger they pose but their cost. A greater cost for drugs means a larger economy existing around the drug which puts more burden on the drug user and creates more profits for sellers.

The short essay below does more than reflect on what a conglomerate of international drug policy initiatives have demonstrated and how degrees of legality could function. Here I imagine how a decriminalized drug culture can exist within a capitalist economy. The most important point I make is that the only trade-off to an increased cost of recreational drugs is an increase in funding for treatment and rehabilitation centers. In the unique situation of the war on drugs, the end of it simultaneously offers a rare opportunity to redefine the basis of our systems of incarceration and rehabilitation through the necessary revolution that the decriminalization of illicit substances would initiate. (Through the extreme amount of time, money, and space saved by the invalidation of current and future drug offenses).

This is the only way that I believe that the war on drugs can be 'won,' this is the end to a means. I have sent out this letter as the final act of war sent by yet another youth who was drafted to a war not for country nor even by country but under the principle which is a deep hatred for the paranoia inherent in the very concept of war itself. My reasoning is not that this letter will reach someone's mind and inspire my desired change, no, I have sent this around because this is my evidence of a change, not that I see happening but that which must happen.

The war on drugs is about much more than just war and drugs... It's a shaky sprint towards inspiration on how to deal with the most dangerous natural pleasures from all over the world in a country that has sought citizens from all over... That's why my words are 'Not Just Words' but carry the weight of all the victims of the war on drugs, not just the people, the souls, but also the waste; all of which cannot be measured because intolerance's biggest victim is concealed behind the cloak of ignorance it wears.



Not Just Words
What follows here is a story of what was, what is, and what could be. It should hold more weight than all the crosses carried on all the backs of all the martyrs that came before Jesus. This is about a curse, a plague, a disease that is still being spread by power and good intentions. The greatest empire the world ever knew had a child. That child was borne unto a place that had yet to be claimed because the natives of the new world believed that man cannot possess the earth; the misguided bastards of Great Britain conquered the people and claimed their sacred ground which was rich. This became known as the America.

The children of the United Kingdom tried to be different from the colonial tendencies of their fatherland. Inevitably, they failed to shed the habits of taking dominion, bringing slaves and raising them in their new home. There was hope in the form of civil war that eventually slavery would be abolished. This country would be the most powerful nation on earth and their actions would continue to echo through the rest of the world. War is how our country resolved slavery and it has continued to be a tool for freedom from oppressive rule; war has been a heavy cross for us to bear time and time again.

That story is familiar; it paved the way for a global civil war that continues to crucify the minds of millions every single day and has gone on for nearly a century. The United States of America started the war on drugs and the amount of suffering it has caused could never be measured because the effects of intolerance strikes at the very foundation of society. It’s no less corrupting on the souls of the lawmakers, peacekeepers, and citizens than was their experience with alcohol prohibition. Since the U.S. has declared a war on drugs, every government in the world has adopted similar laws of prohibition. What’s important about this isn't the failure of governments or people but of their motivations. They saw that drugs threatened their way of life which is held sacred and waged a war on it like they would with any enemy. Today, it’s not American policy that’s leading the way in ending the war but it needs to be because the U.S. is still at the throne of influence. With nuclear weapons, war is different and the war on drugs is evidence of how it’s changing.

What fueled the fear that so threatened American lives as to prompt politicians of the most powerful place on the planet to declare war on drugs? Something had to be done to allow for the possibility of progress; war was all that our united states could think of. Anyone who has struggled with any kind of addiction, directly or indirectly, can appreciate the moral human effort that is the war on drugs. The brain activity of a drug user and someone feeling spiritual euphoria are very similar. On the personal level, drugs are like god and the war is within, it’s a war of self-discipline, understanding, and peace. People deal drugs for many reasons but most universally it is because their government cannot, does not, or will not support them.

The end of the illicit drug trade has to be on terms that we can accept. There are two sides to it, enforcement and distribution. Enforcement doesn’t want their kids hooked on drugs and they don’t think that people should profit from selling them since they don’t benefit anyone. Distribution doesn’t want to be criminalized for using them; they believe that people should be allowed to do what they will with their own body as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. The only way to dismantle distribution chains which are a part of capitalism but not the taxable economy is to provide a better product at a more convenient location for a reasonable price. To do this the government has to become the drug dealers (more specifically, the manufacturers). If governments meet the demand for recreational drugs then all of the black market revenue can be invested directly into research to make the drugs safer.

As new drugs are invented by individuals, organizations, or discovered and adopted by populations then government will make those products available as well; regulating the enforcement of future recreational drugs through capitalist endeavor, grant subsidy, and contract responsibility. This solves the issue of profiting off of the drug war as all the money goes to improving the market for drugs by educating consumers, making a more intelligent product, and providing a safer way to acquire it. This is an example of ‘true capitalism’ which is doing what’s best for an entire market including the consumers. Addictive substances aren’t synonymous with ‘true capitalism’ since they’re dangerous to consume they have to exist outside of it through government regulation. However, criminality involving the use or sale of mind altering substances needs to be extinguished.

The biggest concern of this idea is that it may create more users and my response to that is, “Good." Word of mouth is God; it's the root of religious prosperity for thousands of years and has proven to be the most powerful form of marketing in a capitalist system. We can change the economic structure of the war on drugs. If more people are using recreational drugs in a responsible way and no one’s life is destroyed because of them then that would be more successful. It wouldn’t be like tobacco and alcohol with tons of different brands competing with advertisements everywhere from billboards to Hollywood love scenes. There should be no traditional advertisements anywhere for any addictive substance, only for the treatment, education of effects, or publication of uses. Instead, we have an overpopulated prison system that offers hardly any rehabilitation and a policy that is responsible for a global civil war. Necessity is the mother of invention and perhaps that’s what the war on drugs has given our war-torn world during a time when society was not ready for recreational drugs. Our sciences, treatment, and research methods have evolved greatly since we first began experimenting with prohibition; more specifically psychology, the science of the mind.

All war is shameful but none so much as the war on drugs, because, more than anything, it’s a war between every government of the world and their poor people. Drugs are not for poor people but they can heal mental poverty. This is the only way that we, the U.S., can win the war on drugs. Ushering drugs into our social constructs will bring about change and understanding like the ending of any war. But whether or not we heal the moral, social, and political scars left behind from the war’s aftermath will be largely up to how the government uses the profits generated from the sale of these substances. I believe that this may be the best opportunity to simultaneously reform our entire system of incarceration and rehabilitation. The privatization of prisons predicts the end of the American dream; it’s time to wake up.