Public Security – The Greatest Casualty of the Drug War

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/11-2


Protesters hold a candlelight vigil and a march calling for the end of the drug war on September 6, 2012 in New York City. Mexicans who have lost loved ones in their country's drug war joined with American supporters as part of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and traveled some 6,000 miles through 25 cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago before arriving to New York. They protested the continued war on drugs on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border, which has left tens of thousands of people dead. The caravan is due to arrive in Washington D.C. for its final stop September 10. (PHOTO BY: John Moore)

n stops all around the country, the Caravan for Peace has found that convincing people that the war on drugs is destructive and wasteful is not the problem. The polls show the public came to this conclusion long ago and now close to a majority favor what used to be considered “radical” solutions like legalizing and regulating marijuana. Although most people weren’t aware of the impact of the violence in Mexico, it’s immediately obvious to them that the drug war—trying to block supply in places like Mexico and stop consumption by criminalizing drugs in the U.S.– is not working. Anywhere.

The question then is: If a public consensus on the failure of the drug war, why hasn’t anything changed?

Why does the U.S. government continue to send millions of tax dollars to cities to fight the drug war, as they close down schools for lack of funds? Why does it waste more millions financing a bloody war in Mexico? Why does the Mexican government continue to pay the economic and political cost of a disastrous and destabilizing war? The U.S. has spent 2 billion dollars on the Mexican drug war in the past five years, mostly through the Merida Initiative and the Mexican government has spent at least four times that much.

To answer these questions, we have to look behind the scenes of the drug war. There we find that this disastrous policy has some powerful promoters.

Some fans of the drug war are open and upfront. They are politicians with clear ties to the military establishment and the business of war. Their job is to create conflict and then propose military solutions. They funnel government contracts to defense companies, and then the defense companies funnel funds into their political campaigns.

[porphyrian]

1. Carlisle Groupers support the drug war! It makes them money! n/t

[malcolmkyle]

2. Stop right here!

Maybe you believe that it’s immoral to use a certain drug. But if you also wish such acts to become/remain criminalized, then surely you also have to accept responsibility for the dire unintended consequences of such un-thought-through folly?

Under our present regime, these certain plants/concoctions/drugs are sold only by criminals and terrorists; the huge black-market profits are used to bribe and threaten law enforcement officials; the availability and usage rates tend to go up, not down; the prisons have become filled to capacity with easily replaced vendors or smugglers. This list is endless!

Prohibition guarantees to criminals the power to threaten communities, and even whole states.

Ending drug prohibition won't be the complete answer to all our drug problems, just as the end of alcohol prohibition didn't end all the problems associated with alcohol. But it will surely ameliorate the crime and violence on our streets, and lessen the huge burden on our judicial system, while shrinking the immense incentives for corruption in public office.

[xchrom]

3. welcome

[HiPointDem]

4. kr