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Legalize Drugs Now
and
Dismantle the DEA & ONDCP
I guess this means that I need to trot out my position again that the drug policy of the United States is quite hypocritical and shamelessly inconsistent with principles of science and pharmacology.
It also means that I need to get out the word again to the public that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) ought to be dismantled, and immediately.
The United States government has never really had a sensible approach in trying to legislate morality. It claims to want to save self-destructive people determind to off themselves, but its drug laws are a ludicrous implementation of that desire to save. The imposition and repeal of the Prohibition on the use, possession, distribution, and manufacture of alcohol for a brief period in U.S. history was enabled by what really amounted to a bunch of religious terrorists, euphemistically known at the time as teetotalers and temperance unions. Their actions were silly then, and the actions of the typically dumb-ass right wingers, who want the users of marijuana—which is a substance with far less mortality and morbidity, not to mention potency, than alcohol—locked up forever, are silly now. It is absurd and beyond even the ability of a developmentally disadvantaged person’s ability to accept rationally. (For the right wingers out there who might be reading this, a developmentally disadvantaged person is a “retard.”)
On occasion the Congress will have the sense to hold hearings on the insanity of the United States government for having laws that put nonviolent individuals in possession of illegal drugs away for years in prisons, with sentences much longer than even murderers get.
And, of course, as part of the testimony heard, the Congressional committee will get the typical asinine anecdote from some DEA agent completely unqualified to speak on the pharmacology of aspirin, let alone on the pharmacology of opiates or pot. The ONDCP director may put in an appearance, knowing that his agenda is to keep home-grown medicines from being made legal as pharmaceutical companies have shareholders to please.
On rare occasions, we may even be informed of the greater hypocrisy in which the form or mode of administration of the same pharmacologically active substance is distinguished in law; in which punishments for the drugs abused by the rich and the politically connected amount to handslaps; and in which punishments for the lower classes or even certain ethnic groups are punished by years in maximum security. A glaring example of this is the evidence that powder cocaine users, who tend to be white and rich, pretty much get probation and suspended prison sentences, while crystal or rock cocaine users, who are usually minority and poor, do hard time (see note).
This is your United States of America, folks. The country that pretends to equality under or before the law (isn’t that what it says on the Supreme Court building??).
The country that claims to be an example to other nations.
The government will say that the people want this hypocritical drug policy and its set of laws. The government will say that the public wants marijuana users to get life sentences. And the government will say that the people want those convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol to be molly-coddled, to be tsk-tsked.
And I do mean “tsk-tsked.” Believe it or not, but there are millions of Americans who want to put Mothers Against Drunk Driving, better known as MADD, “in their place,” for they feel that laws punishing drunk drivers have “gone too far.” It is MADD that is largely responsible for why this country has properly strict laws against drunk driving in your state. Note that MADD is not opposed to or never taken a position on the responsible use of alcohol. But choosing to drive under the influence of any drug, legal or illegal, should be a felony in all jurisdictions with severe punishments.
At any rate, since when has the government decided that the monumental ignorance of the people is always to be made government policy? And that goes double for the monumental ignorance of the people concerning drugs.
Sure, in the end, the government must be representative of the will of the people.
But a service of government, provided by the various agencies and departments, is to educate the public about what the public needs to know. And the government has woefully dropped the ball in its duty to educate the public about the basic pharmacology of active drug substances, both naturally and synthetically derived.
When the public has been given the information it needs to have by the government, then the government can await the final judgment of the people. Then the government can formulate and implement a sane policy when it comes to drugs and society.
These kooks might even go so far as to say that the Bible declares the goodness of tobacco and alcohol and the “evil” of marijuana and other drugs, or that Satan worshippers use pot in their rituals (along with the blood of infants too!). That is pretty much the level of debate one will get from this psychopathologically disturbed lot.
One will recognize these individuals when they make comments like, “Marijuana is a gateway drug, but alcohol is not.” You’ve heard enough when you’ve heard that.
What the sentient reader will find completely mind-boggling is that the same people who bitch and moan about government waste and inefficiency and useless programs of government will—almost in the same breath—defend the existence and even advocate more funding and build-up of the DEA and ONDCP!
Truly mind-boggling!
Yet another example of the hypocrisy of these ignoramuses who would rather the government be more on your backs than theirs.
Spread the word for one thing. There is a duty to tell the too-numerous-to-count uninformed citizens out there just how hypocritical the government’s drug policy is. And just how useless the DEA and ONDCP are.
Tell these people about the tactics of those in whose interest it is to maintain the unjust and unfair status quo.
Tell them how to read the statements of those who want to deceive them on drug policy and what the real intention is of the demagogue who makes a career on promoting contradictory and insane drug laws.
Tell them how scientific method not only does not support the position of these demagogues, but that it even shames them.
Writing letters to the editor might be an effective soapbox, but don’t walk away from any opportunity to talk the truth, and especially if there is a challenge or provocation to defend this position.
Of course, in any effort to educate the public, the informed believer in drug legalization/decriminalization will come across a group of pinheads, of demagogues, who advocate the status quo of ignorance and deceit. It is a waste of time to argue with these people once they are recognized and identified. It is a waste of time because they usually have a heavy investment either in ignorance (including religious faith) or in the pharmaceutical industry. Every type of persuasion has been tried on them anyway. They are not interested in the ultimate persuasion, that being the truth. And if all that there is to offer is the truth—that is, no money, no temptation of personal advantage or gain, or other quid pro quo—then it is time to move on, and to tell the jerk to move on too should he become belligerent. And do not think he will not become belligerent: after all, those who make a living at lying and deceiving get serious when their personal fortunes based on lies and deception are attacked.
Finally, get around to writing the elected representatives. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Sure, the representative may already have taken a hardline on being ignorant about drug policy. The representative may respond with the standard tripe which usually involves reciting the discredited reports they claim as scientific (much as they claim that there is scientific evidence that the universe was created in 6 days). Anyway, once this representative has been told what he needs to be told on drug legalization and decriminalization, leave it at that. If the rep continue to take the opposite tack, don’t pursue him, since there is no bigger prick among the opposition than one of its leaders.
But isn’t it so typical that a single truth is often outnumbered and seemingly overwhelmed by the number of lies produced to fight against it?
Remember there is only one truth, and eventually, everyone must acknowledge it in the end if there is to be any progress in human civilization.
Notes
[1] see Chap. 7: Sentencing of Cocaine Offenders within the Report on Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy in a report to Congress by the United States Sentencing Commission [return to text]
