Column misplaces blame for “˜War on Drugs’

By Peter Gitroux

After reading the article, “Legalization will not stop
problems addiction cause” by Andy Jones (Viewpoint, June 8,
2000), I just had to respond.

First of all, Jones starts out correctly when he says that the
change in the Drug War has been influenced by President Clinton,
who has created so many new prisoners for the prison system that
the United States now has more prisoners per capita than any other
country. The world is now in a state of war against the people who
use “Drugs”.

Since the temperance movement of the 19th century, there have
been people fighting to limit which drugs people consume, how they
are consumed, or for what reasons they are consumed. What it comes
down to, though, is that people are just afraid of things that are
different from themselves or their “norms.” It is more
a question of intolerance for others than anything else.

Jones goes on to simply say “Don’t use drugs. Yes,
it’s as simple as that! The Man won’t have any cause to
lock you up.” Sure, at the same time don’t drink
coffee, eat sugar, chocolate, Viagra and all other drugs that
provide relief in some way. Even aspirin is a drug. Even food and
water would meet the requirements of drugs, and eating and drinking
as addictions. Think about it.

The column continues, “If a community feels it is being
targeted by drug laws, the one sure way to avoid being mistreated
by our “˜unjust’ criminal system is to obey the
law.” Maybe Jones once again looks too simplistically at what
the legalizers are doing. They are trying to repair the social
fabric that has been torn by this Drug War. They are trying to stop
the prison industry from housing our family members for using a
plant. They are trying to divert money from prisons to education
and hospitals.

When Jones goes on to say that “Tough-on-crime laws would
no longer be a problem if minority communities chose to avoid drugs
and the violence that comes with them,” he implies
tough-on-crime laws would no longer be a problem if these
communities just gave up their rights.

The violence associated with this crime comes with the loss of
the right of equal justice. “But that’s a difficult
idea for activists, because it requires thinking of people as
independent beings, capable of avoiding what a higher power has
deemed illegal,” Jones writes. Unfortunately, his thinking of
an independent being is different than mine if he thinks that
government is our higher power.

“There is an especially damaging counterpoint to this
simplification: many people who are in prison for drug offenses are
in fact innocent. The police corruption which leads to such
undeserved imprisonment is the real “˜war on our
people,'” Jones says. However, it is not that we are
innocent of drug charges, but the fact that we haven’t
committed any crime. Many of them are there for no more than
possession or being an activist.

Though the violence related to drugs is certainly sad, it would
be better if legal disputes could be handled in a court rather than
the street. Prohibition, not legalization, is the cause for the
corruption. The market will always be there, there will always be a
buyer and a seller, just like any other business in the world.

It is prohibition that is killing communities and separating
people, creating paranoia and snitches. That must surely be the way
to create a trusting, whole community. There are people serving
longer sentences in prisons for drug crimes than other serve for
murder, robbery, rape or many other crimes. Soon we will have to
pay the consequences of letting our government take away our rights
to be free, independent beings that are trying to group into a
society.

Tobacco kills 400,000 people each and every year, but deaths
from Cannabis are far fewer. Jones is probably correct about it
decreasing your quality of life ““ just knowing that 20 armed
SWAT team members can come into your home at any time to harass you
can do that.

The drug problem is not as simple as Jones’ column.
Telling families that they should lock up their kids for their own
good is also not the answer. We are moving into a new millennium
and it is time to end the harm that is prohibition and work on
creating a society for everyone. There are no new frontiers any
more, so now it is time to learn tolerance of our fellow humans and
all their foibles too. We can offer help if they will take it, but
forcing it is against our rights as independent human beings. We
need to work together in order to create a new society for
everyone.