Antiquated Drug Laws Cost Us Plenty

Come sit down with me. Let's have a chat -- a meaningful and productive chat. You comfortable, you want some tea?

Here's what I'm thinking. With all this change in the air, this idea that we really can shake up the status quo and attack our nation's problems from a different angle -- we probably should take a look at our drug laws. Don't you think?

Remember back in 1969 when President Nixon declared a "War on Drugs"? We were going to wipe out the illegal drug trade that stopped so many of us from being productive citizens! Wow, that sure sounded like a great plan. But, here we are 40 years later and we're still struggling with what to do about those who either sell or get addicted to illegal drugs.

It's important to make the distinction here. Drug addicts vs. drug dealers. The first are surely breaking the law but no one aspires to become an addict, right? They're sick and in need of medical and mental health attention. The dealers, of course, are felons making loads of money off the weak.

Yet we lock up both groups as if they are the same kind of criminals. That doesn't seem right.

Now, I don't want to make this a political conversation, you know, Democrats vs. Republicans, liberal vs. conservative. I want to talk about what's best for our country, our economically strapped country. Since that "War on Drugs" declaration we've gone way past the billion dollar mark to somewhere in the trillion dollar area. I read the other day that it costs us a collective 69 billion dollars each year to keep up this war. Why do we keep doing the same things over and over if it's not getting rid of the problem?

It costs society so much in terms of court and prison costs, lost productivity and damage to families. So sad, isn't it?

We've spent years tinkering with prison rehabilitation for convicted addicts. There's been no great breakthrough. Maybe we need special hospitals just for them. I wonder if we could do that for less than 69 billion a year? As for the drug dealers, well, we keep slapping them with mandatory and harsh sentences and as fast as we lock 'em up there are more arrested every day. Our prisons are bursting at the seams!

We've got a federal Drug Enforcement Administration and each state has a drug task force, and local law enforcement has undercover operations to try to smoke out the bad guys. Drugs continue to stream across our borders, mostly from Mexico but also from Canada. Countless homegrown drug labs dot the country's landscape. The problem never seems to end. We don't have a handle on it -- it has a handle on us!

You know, there's a group of 11 thousand law enforcement types, called L.E.A.P., Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, that says if we just legalized all drugs the massive profit margin would disappear. They liken it to 1933 when the prohibition on booze stopped and put Al Capone out of the bootlegging business. L.E.A.P. thinks drug kingpins would find the government taxes and regulations so stiff they'd just fold their tents.

I'll have to have another cup of tea and think about that. I don't think I'm for legalizing all drugs. But, it sure would be a tempting new tax revenue stream, wouldn't it?

Look, I don't pretend to be smart enough to figure out the whole big national drug problem but, you know, we've got to start somewhere. I've been thinking that one way to cut down our costs is to weed out (pardon the pun) those 872,720 Americans who the FBI says were arrested for marijuana in 2007. There might have been a million marijuana arrests last year -- the figures aren't in yet.

I mean who are we kidding? Millions of Americans admit they've smoked grass, ganja, pot -- whatever you want to call it -- including at least two of our Presidents, CEO's of top companies, Olympic athletes and countless other productive members of our society. Spending all this money to arrest and prosecute these cases seems to be getting us nowhere. Isn't it weird that we approve using marijuana for medical purposes but not for those who'd like to substitute it for a glass of vodka once or twice a week?

Yep, that's what I'm thinkin'. We have to start somewhere and so we might as well de-criminalize things for all those Americans who, despite the law, are smoking marijuana anyway.

It sure is nice to be able to chat about this without someone going off accusing the other of being a kook or a commie or some other name. Want some more tea?

Now, let's talk about changing the I.R.S. ...

Diane Dimond can be reached through her web site - www.DianeDimond.net

Comments

[ConnieInCleveland]

It's time to have the conversation, for more than one news cycle. I prefer to call it cannabis, it's proper name. Cannabis hemp has history. It was removed from educational material in America and replaced with 'other'. I didn't find out the wonders of cannabis hemp until I read "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer. I was in my mid thirties and couldn't believe what I was reading. I thought, Oh my God, once people find out these documented facts, things will change. I'm now in my mid fifties and still waiting for change.

Fortunately, people are coming out of the closet and admitting they know the war on cannabis is wrong. People should not be in jail for smoking cannabis.

Some people talk about legalizing all drugs, but I think that is too extreme and distracts from what should be done today. President Obama could right the wrongs of Richard Nixon and remove cannabis hemp from the Dangerous Substance List and let the conversation begin.

Jack Herer's book is available to read online for free at http://www.jackherer.com/ or follow the treasure trove of cannabis hemp information he has posted at current.com http://current.com/users/JackHerer.htm The facts are astounding.

[BusGreg]

Besides calling it cannabis, I'd like to see mass media change the way they say alcohol AND drugs when they cover the subject. It may be a minor point, but the proper way to address it - say an accident report - would be to say... alcohol and OTHER drugs. Alcohol is a drug and far more addictive than cannabis and alcohol has a point where it's consumption is lethal, something impossible with cannabis.

[newageblues]

Nicon, I think it's stopthedrugwar.org not .com But they are a great resource for drug war reformers, aren't they?

[newageblues]

Quoting this article "It's important to make the distinction here. Drug addicts vs. drug dealers. The first are surely breaking the law but no one aspires to become an addict, right? They're sick and in need of medical and mental health attention. The dealers, of course, are felons making loads of money off the weak." It's also important to distinguish between dealers in it for the money and the large number of small dealer-addicts or small dealer-users dealing to be able to afford black market prices for their own use.

[raskabirji]

plus all those that have needlessly died of Cancer or other diseases that CAN BE CURED with HEMP
see Rick Simpson's Movie, Run From The Cure at http://www.phoenixtearsmovie.com

[Nicon]

I love the huffingtonpost for articles like this, simply asking is there a better way, because what we have been doing for the last 80 years is A. based on lies and B. not working. Yet i only find them thanks to the good people at Stopthedrugwar.com who never fail to link their readers over here.

that said, whats with the Partnership for a drug free America add running across the top of my screen right now. These are the same people that told us smoking was good for us and non-addictive, and the people that stand to loose the most money (other than the DEA) when drug prohibition finally grinds to a halt. Yes the Fine Partnership for a Drug Free America is mainly funded my Main stream Alcohol and Cigarette Company s.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Nicon - thank you for the compliment! My field is Crime and Justice issues - and looking outside the box to see if maybe - just maybe - there are better, smarter, more efficient ways to do things.

I think this is a no-brainer! ~ DD

[BusGreg]

OOOOPS, I meant to say the equator measures 24,900 miles. Just a typo, it still would cover those 8 immaginary lines 42 times

[BusGreg]

Excellent Post, Miss Diamond,
I posted these numbers before, but let me put them up one more time. I did a little math to put the OVER one trillion dollars into perspective.
One trillion dollars (plus) has been wasted on the failed drug war. A one dollar bill is 6.375 inches long, so if you do the math and multiply 6.375 inches by one trillion and then divide the result by 12 you get 531,250,000,000 feet and divide that by 5280 you come up with (drumroll please)

100,615,53­0.3 miles

The money wasted on the drug war if laid out in one dollar bills would make a line..
onehundred­millionsix­hundredfif­teenthousa­ndfivehund­redthirty miles long....
According to wikipedia the distance from the earth to the moon (center to center) is 384,403 km or 238,856 miles.
That line of dollar bills would reach from the earth to the moon...
261 times!
Keeping it closer to home, immagine a highway circling our eart around the equator. You could take the same one trillion dollar bills and cover 8 standard 12 foot wide highway lanes around the equator (12,900 miles)....
42 times!

That means the dollars wasted on the drugwar would stretch from the
Earth to the moon 261.75 times!