StoptheDrugWar.org | raising awareness of the consequences of prohibition

StoptheDrugWar.org | raising awareness of the consequences of prohibition.While we have continued to fight the good fight,People continue to go to jail for what are,essentially,health problems.Others,like myself are left in chronic pain because our former drug use has made us pariahs to the BC College of Physicians & Surgeons and we cannot receive proper pain medication while in other jurisdictions people complain about being drugged into unconsciousness.It’s a small wonder that a society in which even the so called experts have no idea what they are dealing with or how to use the tools they have at their control.That the people we elect to office,most with no medical knowledge at all are getting it all so very wrong.Even in countries where a method of decriminalization or legal treatment options have been successful ,our political leaders scoff and say it wouldn’t work here.They never say why but one can only assume that they think their population is inferior in every way to those from Europe,where most of the gains have been made.One group of local politicians toured Europe and ignored every country with progressive policies and stuck to Italy,a country famous for it’s hard line approach to addiction and drugs in general.There are none so blind as he who will not see.Evidently,it is saner to propose a base on the moon than to take a new look at a problem that was created by politicians in an era where every vice was seen as the devils work and bad laws were enacted that it has taken years to rid ourselves of.This prohibition of substances with thousands of years of little harm has created a problem that didn’t exist until the twentieth century.Drug laws are historically the result of a religious fervour and no small amount of racism.They are aimed at controlling certain segments of society even though their use is often much more prevalent in others.This is only going to end in one way.Like alcohol,drugs are a personal choice and have been around for almost as long as man.Their use has a long history and has been tolerated or enjoyed by all segments of society since their discovery.People have made their choice clear with the use of their hard earned dollars.The harsher the law is made in an effort to deal with the problem the harder the criminal that enters the ring.Alcohol was controlled by the most vicious and deadly and so now are drugs.Our money and human resources can be better spent on education,treatment and where those don’t work,maintenance.The cost in dollars and cents is a no brainer.It costs 45,000 dollars to keep a man in prison for one year.This is money wasted in the worst possible way.People are picked up for minor drug charges and wind up facing murder charges just trying to protect themselves.Who’s fault is it that that person’s life is forfeit?When I was dealing in the 70’s,80,s and 90,s there were very few killings.What there were were over rip offs or personal beefs.Now people are shot for wearing the wrong color or being on the wrong block.This is not progress.I have watched for 43 years and things are much worse every decade.To do the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome is insanity.We need to drop this failed prohibition before things get any worse.Every year there are newer and more dangerous drugs.Without the market created by prohibition we would still be dealing with opiates and cannabis with a few psychedelics thrown in.Meth had already run it’s path and faded out.New pharmaceuticals created a whole new plague there.People used to take bennies.The harsher the law enforcement the worse the problem gets.Take it from one who’s seen it all before.As a species we are terrible at learning from history.I am seeing old fights that we thought were over being dredged up by a new generation of prohibitionists who are just as ill informed and are using the same debunked arguments as those from generations past.Even those trying to bring about change are insisting on doing the same work as in the past.This stuff is all out there.Someone just has to collect it all together and even then the politicians will put themselves and their careers ahead of the common good.That is our biggest problem.Willful ignorance with a personal motive.