TIME TO END AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS
Let's radically reassess the problem and initiate a season of solutions
Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs in 1971. At the time he called drugs America’s "public enemy No. 1," although he knew that wasn't true. The entire venture was the worst kind of political ploy - aimed primarily at Black Americans - and continues to exist for no other reason than that few have had the courage to undertake a genuine cost-benefit analysis. We've spent a trillion dollars on the Drug War over the years and clearly it hasn't solved a problem; if anything, it has exacerbated it greatly.
Gabor Mate has remarked that “It isn’t a war on drugs, but a war on drug addicts.” The War on Drugs has caused more suffering than it has abated; among other things, it is one of the main drivers of the prison-industrial complex. When I was in college there were 300,000 people incarcerated in the U.S.; today, there are over 2.3 million. And almost half of all federal prisoners are non-violent drug offenders.
It is time to end America’s War on Drugs, to radically reassess the problem and initiate a season of solutions. Most addicts would prefer to be sober than to be desperately addicted. For the $100B we spend on the Drug War each year, instead we could fund a world class network of drug recovery options. As President I wouldn’t want a Drug Czar; I'd want a Recovery Czar. Ending the War on Drugs will also help undercut the power of the drug cartels by taking away their black market. And it would give us more bandwidth and resources with which to go after the drug we do need to stop - fentanyl.
Major issues such as harm reduction must be addressed strategically should we take the path to drug decriminalization. Read more about my Drug Policy here.
Dear Marianne, thank you for reinstating your name on the Presidential Ballot; I enjoyed your video.
One of your most intelligent idea is proposing to balance the Armed-Forces Defence-Ministry, by complementing it with a Ministry-of-Peace, which is logical and reasonable (since there isn’t one).
However, as a standalone Ministry, in addition to all the other bureaucracy, it would raise the question of funding; who pays for it, and so-on? Tax-payers? Not on!
Solution: -- offer the Peacekeeper-project as an addition to be included in the existing curriculum of War-Strategy Studies. It would make better use of the expensive set-up for War-Games already in place, and its Public-appeal would make it irresistible – if the Armed Forces is serious about abolishing the insane, costly, and resource-depleting Arms Race, by setting an unprecedented example for all International Armed Forces to adopt.
Anyone objecting to your War-Resolution-Strategy, would reveal themselves as being not only bloody-minded aggressive, but equally uncaring about Earth’s fragile and finite environment!
This simple, no-extra-cost principle could be applied across-the-board, for problem-causing corporations to be accountable for, and to be held responsible in resolving humanity’s problems, by making it a mandatory part of all research.
Best regards, Peter
I agree. Not only do other countries with recovery programs have far lower recidivism rates, they also experience less gun violence. It’s a virtuous cycle. #marianne2024