War on Druggies

Have you read the ex-Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper’s insightful take on today’s fruitless “drug war”?

You should. 35 years of police work will give you perspective, and I think it’s a valid one.

Drugs are in every society, have been in every society, and exist in every society. Call the users what you like, dopers, fiends, addicts, ‘heads (cokehead, pothead, crackhead), junkies, but there’s a simple fact that’s remained true throughout the ages: They’re not leaving. Nope, they’re not leaving, they’re not quitting, they’re not stopping and rehabilitation is just another long word in the line to the next fix.

What’s absurd to a few is usually absurd to a many. Not to call in the herd mentality, but I think almost all of us realize that certain things are bad when taken to excess.

Pills? Bad shit. Heroin? Bad shit. Cocaine? Bad shit.

But knowing this doesn’t stop the fact that the people who use these drugs responsibly (and, like the Chief, I say this without referring to it as an oxymoron) are not going to stop. Those who like to smoke weed will always find them some, in the wrong part of town or through a good friend who ‘knows somebody’. Those who snort coke will do so whether or not The Man(tm) officially allows them to do so. If you shoot heroin, you’re not going to stop because it’s illegal.

It has become a crime to commit the sin of doing damage to one’s own body. This is where I see most of the Drug War logic just fall off the deep end. There is a brilliant book called Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do (it’s taken from a Billie Holliday quote). You should really take a gander. It’s just as good and thought-provoking today as it was the 5–7 years ago that I first read it. Peter McWilliams plows the road for people like Norm to illuminate the irony of our policies.

We can get drunk but we can’t get ‘high’. We outlaw cocaine yet we sell “anti-depressants” as the wave of the future, even though they’re just as addictive. The same people who pay for the war on drugs are same companies benefiting from its unlawfulness: drug and alcohol companies. Because let me tell you: If you could go down the street, sit in a hash bar and fire one up, the last thing you’d see is a pharmaceutical executive happy about it.

Bloggers have their own stance with drug use. Some admit it freely, but the most brave postings are where bloggers admit to their addiction when the admission could hurt them in the long run. And you know what? It’s refreshing. That sort of honesty is hard to come by. Worse yet, with my readership I couldn’t be that honest even if I wanted to. There are friends, family, and coworkers who read this site. And by things I reveal or talk about could very well get me canned. I was canned this time last year and let me tell you, joblessness in 2005 is The Suck.

I could write a few more paragraphs on the ridiculousness of not even legalizing medicinal marijuana use, but if you’re reading this I’m guessing you’re in agreement. It seems that the biggest dissenters are old and out of touch. Read a blog, got an RSS feed reader? You probably have at least one thing on your mind regarding the war on drugs that is in direct violation with the current drug policies.

But perhaps one day this issue will come up and we can make our vote count. I just hope I see that day in my lifetime, so our friends, neighbors, and loved ones can get them a little herb when they want it, when our wasted friends can stay wasted as it is their choice, and when grandmothers everywhere can hit a bong and not worry about sitting to close to the kitchen window, where the passing patrol car may see them.

I’m the son of rage and love,
The Jesus of Suburbia