Make Those Freedom Rocks Mean Something

For over a hundred years opiates have been illegal. Lawyers make laws and lawyers make money navigating law so the laws have become more numerous and complex over the years. The year that started the failed War on Drugs was 1914. That’s a long time to run an experiment hoping for better results.

In 1970 I rented a house with four other students in Oakland, California. As the students moved out, junkies moved in. Anything that wasn’t guarded disappeared up some poor soul’s arm. They seemed to judge whether the dose was strong enough by whether or not they threw up. They did this with such regularity that they always seemed to make it out the back door and into my garden in time, like a trip to the bathroom.

I found a job that kept me away from that miserable house six days a week. I used to have a pretty good record collection and golf clubs. They didn’t take my sleeping bag or backpack, thank goodness.

Junkies are sad. Their only focus is on the next fix. I hate them and pity them. I want to help but we need to face facts, follow the science, as they say. No dope addict has ever successfully beat that curse because dope was not available.

Are our Representatives really convinced that their efforts keep drugs out of our communities?

The answer is obvious. Politicians leave private business to serve the public. But somehow they accumulate more wealth in office than they did in business. They have incentive to appear helpful in their roles as “public servants”. They get re-elected on promises.

Crime is one of the outcomes associated with drug abuse. Most drug abusers have a difficult time maintaining a job that pays for their habit, so they steal. 

With a society increasingly believing that private property is evidence of exploitation, crime has increased along with a tacit belief that criminals are entitled to the earnings of the productive class. Along with “rights” to healthcare and education it’s natural to pile on a right to have the nanny-state prevent destructive behavior. 

Conservatives join right in with liberals in a desire to have government babysit drug abusers along with people needing healthcare and education. Whatever happened to the conservative idea of freedom and responsibility? 

Compassion dictates support for a police state. In the minds of drug war hawks, dealers are forcing their children to do drugs. Since Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs in 1971, taxpayers have spent over a trillion dollars to stem that tide. In Mexico 350,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands gone missing fueled by the drug war.

This prohibition, like the one in the 1920s, has spawned gang wars and overdoses. It’s the science again. In the 20s alcohol consumption shifted from beer and wine to Everclear. Contraband is easier to conceal in stronger and more compact forms. Increased fentanyl use has been created by prohibition because of its ease of concealment.

Overdoses are also a result of the illegality of drugs. The druggies don’t have a way to know the purity of the product. 

The image of some kid laying next to a needle is heart wrenching for anyone. Somehow politicians are immune, or they lack the ability to reason it through in the face of winning an election by appealing to an unthinking electorate that simply wants the problem solved. 

When Representative Randy Feenstra insists that the Halt Fentanyl Act will keep deadly drugs out of our communities, what are his motives? Is it to look good and get re-elected? Or is it to keep deadly drugs out of our communities? 

Legalize it to starve the cartels. Legalize it to make it less lethal. Legalize it and tax it to fund treatment for those who want it. Legalize it because personal responsibility, not dictatorship, is what makes this a great country.

Born on this date was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who said:

“If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.”

Please comment on my column with a letter to the editor or directly to me at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com