By Carmen Yarrusso
Dear honorable representatives of the American people:
The so-called "drug war" is a blatantly dishonest, extremely expensive, highly destructive, grossly unjust, abject failure of our government.
Despite thirty years and more than a trillion (a million times a million!!!) dollars of taxpayer money spent trying to stop-not robbery, not rape, not murder, not even shoplifting-but trying to stop adults from using certain arbitrarily - banned drugs, despite draconian punishments, despite currently jailing 500,000 non-violent American citizens, despite tens of thousands of prohibition related murders, these drugs are cheaper, purer and more readily available than ever.
Why do you allow this insanity to continue?
How many more taxpayer billions must we waste, how many more thousands of productive Americans must we lock up, how many more thousands of human beings must die in drug war violence before you honorable representatives of the American people put an end to this foolish, futile carnage?
When will you find the courage to openly admit that drug prohibition (just like alcohol prohibition) is guaranteed to be counterproductive, guaranteed to be extremely violent, guaranteed to be perpetually futile, and guaranteed to leave a wide swath of human suffering and death in its wake?
When will you find the courage to tell the truth about drug prohibition?
Prohibition Truth Number One
The "drug war" is not a war against drugs-quite the contrary-it's a war for drugs. It strongly encourages both production and distribution of prohibited drugs by guaranteeing extremely high profits for everyone involved. Does it make any sense to believe a government policy that guarantees massive profits for any activity could possibly result in less of that activity?
Let's be very clear: the "drug" war is a war against living, breathing human beings, not drugs. Drugs are merely the dishonest excuse for an extremely profitable, ruthless enterprise, the victims of which are real people.
The violence in Mexico, where more than 6000 have been murdered in just one year, where bodies are often mutilated and beheaded, is NOT the result of America's demand for prohibited drugs (as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has implied). Not at all. That demand, like our demand for alcohol and nicotine, could easily be satisfied without any violence.
The thousands of murders in Mexico (and thousands more in this country) each year are the direct result of drug prohibition itself. When alcohol was prohibited, the murder rate in America skyrocketed, when Prohibition ended, the murder rate rapidly declined. When's the last time you heard of a murder during an alcohol deal gone bad?
How can you honorable representatives of the American people justify arresting and jailing hundreds of thousands, the killing of thousands more each year, and the squandering of billions in taxpayer money (most of it) on a guaranteed-futile attempt to stop adults from using marijuana?
When will you find the courage to tell the truth about drug prohibition?
Prohibition Truth Number Two
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