Here in the United States of America we love us a good war. To us, waging war is about as American as apple pie, baseball, and thinking that if we just talk louder to the non-english speaking person in front of us, somehow they will finally understand what we are saying.
We love war so much it’s become our greatest export. No joke. According to Forbes and the The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute…
“For the five years from 2017 to 2021, the U.S. accounted for 39 percent of major arms deliveries worldwide, over twice what Russia transferred and nearly 10 times what China sent to its weapons clients. In addition, the U.S. had far more customers – 103 nations, or more than half of the member states of the United Nations.”
That’s a whole lot of weapons for a whole lot of war, baby.
From Korea to Vietnam, Iraq to Afghanistan, the list of wars the U.S. has fermented and/or fought in is, well, staggering. And towards the top of that list sits one of our most prized and cherished of organized conflicts. It’s a war that we’ve been fighting not only around the world, but here at home since the early 1970’s. I’m talking of course about the War on Drugs.
Codified in 1970 by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon with the signing of the Controlled Substance Act, the War on Drugs quickly became a favorite of the powers that be here in the United States. Not only is it a perpetual, never-ending-spending war with new “enemies” being born with every generation but it also gave our leaders an evil boogeyman to campaign on. A monster they made sound so scary, that they actually convinced U.S. citizens to hand over their 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights on a platter to U.S. Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice System. Hell, it even gave them an excuse to spawn yet another government agency, The Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA.
This June, now marks the 51st anniversary of the War on Drugs. Yes, for over half a century we’ve been at war with drugs, or more specifically, drug users and their suppliers. And when viewed through the lens of tax dollars spent and U.S. lives destroyed, this five decade long war has, without a doubt, become one of the United States of America’s least successful wars. Which is saying a lot especially when compared to our military pratfalls in places like Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Since 1971 the U.S. has spent well over a trillion dollars on the drug war. And, like a budget sucking cancer, it’s only growing bigger. CNBC reports…
In 1981, the federal budget for drug abuse prevention and control was just over a billion dollars. By 2020, that number had grown to $34.6 billion. When adjusted for inflation, CNBC found that it translates to a 1,090% increase in just 39 years.
Yet, despite all of those tax dollars spent, CNBC goes on to point out that…
“According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of illicit drug users rose to 13% of Americans 12 years or older in 2019, nearly reaching its peak from 40 years ago. If the goal of the war on drugs was to decrease drug usage and prevent drug-related deaths, it hasn’t made much progress.”
Well now that’s depressing.
Thankfully, despite all the wasted lives and money spent on this ultimately stupid and horrific endeavor, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. A spark of life in a dark sea of death. The the good ol’ U.S. of A. finally appears to be waking up from its DEA induced nightmare and that wake up call is coming in the form of Cannabis.
Ridiculously labeled a Class 1 controlled substance by the U.S. Government, sharing space with heroin, LSD, Ecstasy and others, Marijuana has long been a target of the War on Drugs. Despite of course the rather inconvenient fact that, to this day, no one has ever overdosed by smoking pot. That, combined with its myriad of medical and agricultural benefits, allowed Marijuana to slowly and methodically undercut and roll back the propaganda and terror that have long been the tools of Drug War advocates and masterminds.
Thirty-eight states have now, in one form or another, have legalized or decriminalized the buying, selling, and using of Marijuana. And to no ones surprise, those states have not tumbled down into the chaos and decadence that many of our politicians and drug war bootlickers promised would happen if people started smoking pot legally. Instead, many of those states have seen an extraordinary economic boom, with even Forbes declaring that Cannabis Legalization Is Key To Economic Recovery, Much Like Ending Alcohol Prohibition Helped Us Out Of The Great Depression. And contrary to the heaps of lies we were told, especially by Republicans here in the state of Minnesota, no, legalization has not led to children across the land blazing up. Actually, quite the opposite has happened. U.S. News is now reporting that…
“Marijuana use among teens has not increased in states that have passed medical or recreational marijuana laws in the past 25 years, a new study finds – in fact, legalization may be making it more difficult for teens to obtain pot.”
The article goes on to state that…
“Recreational marijuana laws were associated with a 8% decrease in the likelihood of teens trying marijuana as well as a 9% reduction in the odds of frequent marijuana use,”
Enter Bernie Sanders, the Senator out of Vermont and socialist scourge of Corporate Democrats and Republicans everywhere, who in an email last Friday declared to his supporters …
"We must reform our broken and racist criminal justice system, and one of the ways we can do that is by finally legalizing marijuana at the federal level … What we are now seeing is a radical change of consciousness among the American people on this issue," the senator continued. "So now is the time for Congress and the federal government to end the war on drugs and legalize marijuana nationwide."
Sanders also suggested that instead of using the U.S. criminal justice system to throw harmless Marijuana users in jail, the United States should be using law enforcement to go after white collar criminals instead. He’s got a point.
White Collar crime and Wall Street shenanigans have accounted for just 3% of federal prosecutions and yet, as of 2021, their crimes have accounted for an estimated $426 billion to $1.7 trillion in losses. In fact, the reason that there is such a gap in that estimation is because white collar crimes are so rarely prosecuted in the United States. Compare those numbers to Marijuana arrests where, in the year 2019 alone, over 540,000 people arrested for cannabis related crimes. In fact, marijuana arrests that year, were actually 9% higher than the number of people arrested for violent crimes.
Looking at these statistics, combined with the current price gouging and great sucking up of our wealth by the billionaire class and it shouldn’t shock people that more and more of the country is toking up each year.
Bottom line, after 51 years of the War on Drugs, it’s time to put an end to the bloodshed, the racial profiling, the no-knock warrants, the mass incarceration, the families destroyed and lives cut short. I agree with Sen. Sanders let’s start locking up the real criminals, the ones in white collars.
Dam straight Jesse.....the brave ass cops don't mind busting up someones life because they're accused of growing or selling a bit of pot. But shootup a school and the cops wait at the donut truck until the gunfire dies down!!!!!
Marijuana is destructive and therefore a stupid decision. Which is why most drug users are stupid peoplemwith lots of other problems. But they're no more destructive than scotch, or tobacco, or big macs, or donuts, or pistols, or cars, etc. Like all destructive things, they also have benefits which can be balanced against the risks by competent people. The problem is increasingly despotic government treats all people as stupid and tries to control that stupidity with overbearing tyranny. Some people just don't belong here and will find ways to shorten their stay, one way or another. The only valid role for government is to make sure those people don't hurt others in their self destruction, or restrain them if they do.
Drug laws haven't worked, and will never work. Just a work program for millions of cops. Having been an award winning narc, I can testify that it's great fun, but also frustrating to realize we never made a dent in the flow. Executing users is the only solution, eventually we'll clean out the gene pool of those who want drugs. Short of that, drugs will be with us forever.