WARS WITHOUT END

By Andrew Williams

The War on Some People with Some Drugs--as Robert Anton Wilson has aptly

named it--has accomplished two goals: it's made certain drugs (e.g., LSD,

marijuana, heroin, cocaine, ecstacy, MDMA) illegal and much, much more

dangerous than they were to begin with. Oh, and it's terrorized the

American people, turned the country into a police state and wasted

billions of dollars. Bravo.

And all this spread out over the course of almost 90 years. That's right,

you read that right. The first anti-drug law--the Harrison Narcotics

Act--was passed in 1914. Prior to that, heroin, opium, cocaine and

cannabis were legal. (Pot, incidentally, didn't receive the official

federal kibosh until 1937. seemingly because of its use by Mexicans and

blacks and hemp's potential as a fabric to rival King Cotton.) You could

even find it in children's medicine. Remember the adage, "Children should

be seen and not heard?" You don't think parents accomplished that just by

caning and shaming the little tykes, do you?

So what evidence is there to indicate that legal access to H and coke was

causing a significant level of societal harm? According to Dr. Arnold

Trebach of American University, who researched this question over a decade

ago for his book "The Great Drug War," there were, according to government

statistics, perhaps 50,000 drug addicts in the US circa 1914. That's out

of a population of approximately 100 million. Today, thanks to law

enforcement, Congress, the judiciary and anti-drug propaganda, 25 percent

of the American people have used an illegal drug. And according to a poll

commissioned by the Department of Injustice earlier this year, the current

Drug War ads are actually triggering an increase in illegal drug use. No

fruit like forbidden fruit.

Last week, I was watching a Star Trek: Voyager rerun that struck me hard

with its parallel to drug prohibition. The crew of Voyager was visiting a

planet whose inhabitants were telepathic. In order to cut down on violent

crime--apparently, once a telepath has a violent thought, it spreads like

a virus--it became a crime to have violent thoughts or impulses. As it

turns out, this law fostered the creation of a black market in recordings

of violent thoughts, to be experienced--literally and vicariously--by

young and old, man and woman alike. The planet's Thought Police, in

attempting to end violent crime, had created a new crime.

Things have reached the point where even broadcast media poke fun at

anti-drug ads, like the promos for the syndication of "That '70's Show"

that play off the infamous "This is your brain" ad. It would be even

funnier if statistical probability didn't predict that 750,000 people

will be arrested this year for marijuana possession--alone. Can anyone

name me one person who died from smoking pot? Just from smoking pot?

Anyone? Can anyone out there explain why we still need these Draconian

laws?

Well, I can. We can't have police on the unemployment line. Not with

"Homeland Security" at stake. And the Office of National Drug Control

Policy needs its money, too. And the DEA. And the CIA--to maintain the

flow of drugs and weapons. And the drug interdiction departments of the

ATF, FBI, Coast Guard, etc. And the politicians. And the pharmaceutical

companies--they don't much like competition. Hell, government is the

largest recipient of government welfare.

Even people who don't use drugs can see the illogic of the WOSPWSD. It is,

like the War on Terrorism, a war without end. The State creates its own

enemies; otherwise, it would lose at least half of its reasons for

existance and as much of its plunder.

In her latest video, "Render," Ani DeFranco says, "I'm saving up my

tickertape for the day when the drug war is over, and I'm going to have

myself a parade." I--and billions of other people worldwide--hope she

won't have to save it much longer. But our government is engaged on

several fronts, fighting several wars that never have and never will be

won. That's a pretty big monkey to knock off someone's back. And with our

money feeding that monkey, keeping its coat nice and shiny, there is no

end in sight.

www.norml.org

www.trebach.org

www.drc.net

www.iangoddard.net

www.greenpanthers.org

www.hightimes.com

www.copvcia.com