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To: zipper

I hate to break it to you but, the Drug War in this nation has failed.

What is your solution?


27 posted on 01/11/2008 12:48:27 PM PST by trumandogz (Hunter Thompson 2008)
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To: trumandogz
I hate to break it to you but, the Drug War in this nation has failed.

What is your solution?

The "War on Drugs" is a misnomer, much like the "War on Terror".

There is no "war", there are no defined geographic lines, there is no DMZ, there are no definitive, conclusive measures of victory or defeat. It's an ongoing process, trying to rid society of the scourge of drug abuse. In that sense this "War on Drugs" is a social war. Progress must be measured by how well we thwart the will of those who would engage in self-destructive drug practices, even as there are new recruits to self-destructive drug abuse (thanks to the enablers, a group you belong to). Aside from those who are deterred from illicit drug use, there are also those who either die or are rehabilitated.

Likewise the War on Terror really isn't a war, with opposing armies, or with each side able to use metrics to say one side is winning and one side is losing. One side won't suddenly surrender, there is no peace process, no armistice, no signed documents of capitulation, no flag representing one side or the other.

In both these "wars" there are gains and setbacks; the progress toward "victory" ebbs and flows. We don't have victory in sight because we can't define victory, though we can define progress. We can't isolate the enemy in a lasting way, and we can't completely prevent recurrence -- new enemy soldiers appear spontaneously in the War on Terror, as does the supply of illicit drugs and users in the War on Drugs. That's the way is has been and always will be, for the forseeable future.

Another perpetual war is the "War on Poverty" -- used rhetorically by both advocates of big and small government to either justify more spending or decry the usefulness of any programs to alleviate poverty.

34 posted on 01/11/2008 7:20:21 PM PST by zipper
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