Drug Wars
-by Lon Allen-
Editor - The statistical information contained in this article is taken from Jonathan Ott's treatise on sane drug reform - Pharmacotheon (The Proemium) - interspersed with my own ramblings.
- Lon Allen -
As a babyboomer in my mid-fifties, I've been listening to the malarkey surrounding cannabis legislation for about 35 years-most of it coming from invertebrate politicians who lack the guts to do the right thing and take this ridiculous law off the books.
Decriminalization isn't the operative word here-repeal would be more appropriate-as in the alcohol prohibition law of the 20's. Virtually every study commissioned here in Canada from the LeDain Commission in 1970 to the Canadian Senate in 2002, has said this stuff is not the business of the courts-period. In 1970, Richard Nixon also commissioned a study which said the same thing and his response was to form the DEA and for the last 35 years a lot of people have been getting filthy rich off the 'war on drugs'.
With $40 billion spent every year prosecuting this so-called 'war on drugs' and $40 billion more spent by consumers of them, it's not in the interest of the people who run our culture to repeal this blatant affront to civil rights when so much money is being made by keeping it illegal. There have been thousands of unharmful, gentle souls locked up in jails over the decades as a result of this obscenity-just to inflate a few bank accounts.
"The greatest beneficiaries of the drug laws are organized and unorganized drug traffickers. The criminalization of the drug market effectively imposes a de facto value-added tax that is enforced and occasionally augmented by the law enforcement establishment and collected by drug traffickers. More than half of all organized crime revenues are believed to derive from the illicit drug business; estimates of the dollar value range between $10 and $50 billion U.S. per year... If the marijuana, cocaine, and heroin markets were legal, state and federal governments would collect billions of dollars annually in tax revenues. Instead, they spend billions in what amounts to a subsidy of organized criminals."(Nadelmann-1989)
A society that coddles murderers and armed robbers in order to "get tough" on potheads is not walking the moral high ground-to say the least!
The fact of the matter is, "we already have an 'epidemic' of psychoactive drug use in the U.S., as evidenced by the 178 million caffeine users, 106 million alcohol users, 57 million tobacco users, 12 million marijuana users, not to mention at least 3 or 4 million regular users of psychoactive prescription drugs, such as Valium." (Goldstein and Kalant 1990).
Whether drugs are legal or illegal, the vast majority of users exercise control and responsibility, and a minority of users come to be controlled by the drugs. This happens with alcohol as well as with heroin, with tobacco as well as with marijuana.
If law and order nuts want to target peddlars of psycho-active drugs they should probably start with Ely Lilly, Pfizer, GKS and so on. Just for the fun of it, you could check out the profiles of some these drugs-you know the ones-Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, etc.-Guaranteed to stand your hair on end-especially when the difference between effective dose and lethal dose is often relatively minute; to say nothing of the laundry list of side effects you can look forward to by taking these 'cures?'
Psychedelics generally, I think, are relatively safe (physiologically, anyway)-cannabis, the plant-based tryptamines (ayahuasca-an orally-active form of DMT,-and psilocybin mushrooms), and others.
It's funny-the most potent psychedelic on the planet-DMT (dimethyltryptamine)- is present in human metabolism. I guess that makes everyone on the planet guilty of being in possession of a Schedule 1 drug all the time. (I wonder how that will affect the drive to legislate against ever-smaller amounts of dormant chemicals in the body).
Psychedelics are not for everyone-including cannabis, perhaps. They should be treated with respect-not as party favors. A good psychedelic trip begins with a trip to the library-so one should do some homework before taking them.
Psychedelics are more of a civil rights issue than a health concern. I mean, if we aren't competent to examine the contents of our own minds, who the hell is?- George Bush, Ralph Klein, Oprah Winfrey?
And, not to put too fine a point on it: law enforcement motives, like political ones, are murky at the best of times, and should be given a good hard look before signing on board with either one of them. Cannabis shouldn't even be an issue.
Personally, I'm not impressed with the decriminalization bill we have coming up here in Canada (maybe)-it simply means cops will be handing out a LOT of tickets; so we're still cash-cow victims of government, multi-national pharmaceutical companies, organized and unorganized crime, and others who profit by maintaining the status quo.
If we buy into the notion that certain psycho-active drugs are illegal because a benevolent government is concerned little Johnny will take a stroll off a 10th floor balcony, then we're just whistling past the graveyard.
Personally, I'm not too interested in the government's opinion on anything. I mean, they never get anything right. They got birth control wrong, abortion wrong, racial rights, women's rights, gay rights-wrong, wrong, wrong; toxic foreign policies, stupid space program, miserable tax set-up, lousy health-care program...and now, they would have us believe they have the answers on something as subtle as psychedelic drugs? Gimme a break!
Meanwhile, Dan Gardner, senior writer for the Ottawa Citizen, has this to say about grow-ops...
Discuss
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Psychedelic Santa
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