All of my adult life I've considered myself a conservative. Those who know me well might say that is an understatement. I've always been a conservative when it came to economic policy and on politics in general. When it comes to social issues I've always been a conservative except on the abortion issue, I support women's right to choose. I was a hawk during the Vietnam war, the Gulf war and the war in Afghanistan. I'm not so sure about the war in Iraq.On the issue of drugs I've always supported the "war on drugs". The number of lives ruined and lost due to drug use is sickening to say the least.
However, on the drug issue, I've changed my mind 180 degrees. After all the years and the billions of dollars spent, I think we have to admit that the war on drugs has been a complete and utter failure. Not just in the United States but in the world. I suppose its understandable. There is just too much easy money in drug trafficking. Arrest a ton of small time dealers and an occasional king pin and the vacancies are filled immediately if not sooner.
Ladies and gentlemen its more than time to make a change in our approach to the issue of drugs; I say a drastic change is in order! I, who has derided the liberal drug policies of Holland and Portugal, am now saying that these countries have not gone far enough. I'm saying it's time to completely legalize all drugs and control the sale of them just like we do with alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. This is not a new idea. A number of people have been advocating this idea for years and I have always scorned them. Well, now I'm one of them.
Having lived in Venezuela for the last seventeen years and reading and listening to Spanish language news from not only Venezuela but also Mexico, El Salvador. Bolivia, Colombia and more, has given me a different perspective on this issue of drugs. These countries are the principle sources of the drugs that enter the United States. it is staggering the number of lives ruined or lost on a daily basis in these countries due to drug trafficking. The cartels and mafias are always fighting for control of this lucrative business. They are killing each other and anybody else that happens to be in the way. With their never ending supply of U. S. dollars, these mafia are able to corrupt government officials as well as police and military officials and those that they can't corrupt they kill. In Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia drug mafias have taken control of entire cities. There is one city of five hundred thousand in Mexico, not far from Loredo, Texas, where the towns people have set-up a Twitter network to warn each other of the mafias movements so that people can hopefully stay out of harms way. These people live in constant fear for lives. In Colombia there is a gorilla army known as the FARC which, in English, stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The FARC was formed over fifty years ago by left wing extremist to over throw the elected government for their own political ends. They eventually got into drug trafficking to finance their cause. But over time they became just one more drug cartel. And so in Colombia the kidnappings, the bombings and the murder just keeps happening.
America is, by far ,the biggest market for drugs in the world. Therefore, it is the American drug consumer that is primarily responsible for financing the drug related terror that reigns in these drug producing countries.Because it is being financed by Americans, it is , in my opinion, Americas responsibility to do something about it and clearly the so called war on drugs is not the answer. The war on drugs has not worked, is not working and shows no signs that it will ever work. By making drugs legal and relatively cheap, the drug trafficking profits will dry up and the cartels and mafias will go the way of the buggy whip.
The billions of dollars that the United States is spending on its war on drugs could be spent on social programs to help get people off drugs and on programs to help keep children from getting started on drugs. Think of all the violent deaths that could be prevented; not only in the Untied States but also in all of the drug producing countries by putting the drug traffickers out of business. As for the argument that drug use will increase if they are legalized, I'm not buying it; the preponderance of evidence is tha this has not happened in Holland and Portugal.
I rest my case.
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