I am an avid reader. I absolutely inhale books, articles, magazines, newspapers -- and one recurring theme that seemingly pops up everywhere is: "When are we going to stop this insane war on drugs?" In the future people will look back upon this era as we now look back on prohibition.
You did what with people who sniffed cocaine? You put them in jail for two whole years and it cost you $50,000 a year or 100,000 dollars. Were you out of your mind? Couldn't you think of something better to do with 100,000 than spend it on someone whose crime is consumption of a substance you, personally, believe he or she should not have consumed?.
You allow people to consume alcohol, gallons of it. You can fuel up, tank out, get blottoed. If you drive a car blotto, we will get you, but ain't no one gonna stop you from getting blotto, or legless, as the British call it. Tank up kiddo.
But don't inhale. Well, you may inhale tobacco, in certain places, but don't you dare inhale this long list of stuff we have decided you should not inhale. If you do, we will ask you to pee into a bottle, because, to tell you the truth, we can't even tell if you are high: you are behaving okay. But if your bodily fluids testify against you, watch out. We're gonna throw you in jail for the mandatory two years. You inhaled when we said you shouldn't inhale.
This isn't laughable, it's insane, costly -- and people in the future will not even begin to be able to fathom our reasoning. You did what with addicted people? You threw them into jail? How do you think that helped their addiction? Of course you can spend 100,000 dollars babysitting them for two years -- but that makes you a bigger idiot than the people you are babysitting.
Words fail me. People will laugh -- in the future. They will see our behavior as funny, irrational, desperate. They didn't know what else to do with these people so they spend billions and billions of dollars babysitting them while they let the real criminals, the violent criminals, walk the streets of their city.
Charles Hynes, District Attorney for Kings County in New York City said, "More drug offenders went to New York State prison than violent felony offenders and the trend continues throughout the country."
Are we sane? Are we rational? Are we out of our minds? Who the heck is in charge? Why this insane war on drug users? Listen to the words: War on drugs. As I once realized, the war isn't on drugs, it is on people. You want to fight drugs--seize drugs, confiscate drugs. Go right ahead. But don't attack people, imprison. People are greedy little things that want coka-cocalas, cocaine, cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, amphetamines. Leave those poor creatures alone. You want to fight drugs, okay. But people are largely blameless: They do not set out to harm others, they inhale a substance in their search for unconsciousness, or a higher consciousness. They do not deserve to be jailed.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein