Have We Lost the Drug Wars?

Townhall.com ^ | January 8, 2013 | Bill Murchison

[Tublecane]

“Have we lost the drug wars?”

Yes, duh.

[Sherman Logan]

prison populations have quintupled since 1980, in large degree thanks to laws meant to decrease drug usage by prohibiting it

Not nearly as much as you might think. When cops arrest someone for most any crime, and they are in possession, they often drop the other charges and prosecute for possession, since it is easier to prove.

IOW, the drug charge is often a form of plea bargaining that makes the courts run more efficiently. If drugs were made legal, then those other charges would be filed. I'm not sure prison populations would drop greatly.

The article makes it sound like most people in prison are non-violent non-criminal folks who got caught with a joint. There are some, no doubt, but they are certainly the exception.

[ClearCase_guy]

Fiscal Conservatism and Social Conservatism are linked.

With the Great Society, the government established ground rules: personal responsibility doesn’t matter. Work ethic doesn’t matter. School and family do not matter. Do whatever you want — the government has tons of money and will do whatever it can to help you maintain a lifestyle that is fun and void of all responsibility.

Any Fiscal Conservative should read the above and say, “We need to cut back the government.”

And any Social Conservative should read the above and say, “It’s no wonder so many people have gotten involved in drugs over the past 40 or 50 years.”

One could say that “we’ve lost the drug war” — but I think it is more important to note that we’ve lost the “limited government” part of our heritage. With fewer social programs, we’d probably have a whole lot less reason to worry about people taking drugs.

[GSWarrior]

I still don't understand why people take drugs. Can't they just pour themselves a nice shot of bourbon?

I don't think this author has a firm grasp on the subject about which he writes.

[Edgar3]

The war is not against drugs anyway. The war is against the little guys trying to compete against the official government black-market drug trade.

[bmwcyle]

Yes, they vote Democrat.

[Sherman Logan]

O National tides seem presently to be running in favor of abortion and gay marriage -- two more elements of the culture wars that began, contemporaneously, with the battle for the right to puff pot.

Nope. Nobody mentioned gay marriage back then, or even imagined it. It was the sexual revolution that started at the same time, and gay marriage is just the latest stage in the Rev.

[Wayne07]

"Forty-odd (exceedingly odd, I might add) years ago, who would have envisioned a national war against drugs? Nobody took drugs -- nobody you knew, nobody but jazz musicians and funny foreign folk."

40 years ago was 1973 - the year the DEA was created, so clearly drug use had already been growing for a while. Maybe the author missed the sixties?? :)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The drug war was lost back in the 1950s with the Beatniks and the 1960s with the Hippies,
and the 1970s with the Counter Culture movement began a systematic destruction of all things we consider normal up until today.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

One could say that “we’ve lost the drug war” — but I think it is more important to note that we’ve lost the “limited government” part of our heritage. With fewer social programs, we’d probably have a whole lot less reason to worry about people taking drugs.

We lost our war on alcohol in the near absence of social programs. And why are we "worrying" about people taking drugs in any case?

[Tublecane]

Only jazz musicians and funny foreigners took drugs 40 years ago? This after the hippies. And it’s not as if drugs suddenly became illegal in 1971, though that may be when the war ramped up and got its name. Who could have envisioned a national war on drugs back then? Everyone who was alive during Prohibition or had heard of it, which was everyone.

This is a remarkably poorly written article.

[Cyber Liberty]

Depends on the intent:

If the purpose was to keep people from taking drugs, yes, we lost it a long time ago.

If it was to create a whole new class of criminals to control (as described in a quote from Atlas Shrugs posted on FR many times), then no. It’s working perfectly.

[joe fonebone]

depends upon your idea of victory...

have we stemmed the flow of and use of illegal drugs...NO..

have we given up our liberties, 4th amendment rights and slowly turned our country into a police state... YES

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

http://www.cduniverse.com/roy-clark-do-you-believe-this-town-lyrics-1431493.htm

Do you believe they voted this town dry?
Well you won’t believe it when I tell you why
The mayor and his cousin and the chief of police
have the bootlegging all nailed down
Do you believe this town?

[gunnyg]

In 1948 I was still 4 yrs away from being old enough to join the Corps—had never heard of MJ—but one afternoon I picked up the daily news and there was sleepy-eyed robert mitcum busted!

http://dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com/2011/01/robert-mitchum-and-marijuana-charge.html

The world began changing faster not that long after that...

Semper Watching!
*****

*****

[Cyber Liberty]

Whoa! Great Minds, and only 8 seconds apart....

[Brightitude]

When cops arrest someone for most any crime, and they are in possession, they often drop the other charges and prosecute for possession, since it is easier to prove.

So, the outcome is that thieves and thugs get a free pass on their thieving and thuggery. Doesn't sound like a terribly good idea to me.

[Brightitude]

I still don't understand why people take drugs. Can't they just pour themselves a nice shot of bourbon?
I don't think this author has a firm grasp on the subject about which he writes.

He does, however, seem to have a finely honed sense of sarcasm.

[Psalm 144]

Years ago. Decades.