10 Ways the Drug War Is Causing Massive Collateral Damage to Our Society

From AlterNet:

The war on drugs is America’s longest war. It has been 40-plus years since Nixon launched our modern “war on drugs” and yet drugs are as plentiful as ever. While the idea that we can have a “drug-free society” is laughable, the disastrous consequences of our drug war are dead serious. While it might not be obvious, the war on drugs touches and destroys so many of the issues we care about and the values we hold.

Click here for the list.

A couple of years ago I was talking with my then girlfriend about the War on Drugs.  I was advocating legalizing drugs and treating the issue as a public health concern.  I named a few of the many reasons this is a damned fine idea.  But she just couldn't get her arms around the concept of harm reduction.  To her, keeping drugs illegal was a must because drugs are bad.  It didn't seem to matter that the War on Drugs causes far, far more problems than the drugs themselves do.  She had this vision of everyone getting fucked up all the time, and, I think, society falling apart as a result.  We didn't really continue the conversation once it became clear to me that she was unable, or unwilling, to depart from the rigid anti-drug orthodox propaganda to which we have all been subject for most of my life.  Drugs are bad, mmm-kay, so just say "no."

I have to keep reminding myself that what is so mind-numbingly clear to me, that the never-ending War on Drugs is an absolute failure and an albatross around the neck of our nation, continues to be crazy talk to a great number of Americans.  I shouldn't be surprised: at this point in history, millions of kids have gone through the demonstrably ineffective anti-drug school program DARE, and even though most of them sort of intuitively understand that it's bullshit, a number of them buy into part or all of it.  That is, the War on Drugs is also about information, propaganda, and instilling inflexible black and white notions about how the world works.  And this propaganda is successful with many.

That's why it's always good to revisit the facts.  So go check out the above linked article.  We need to remember that we've been on this suicide mission for forty years now.  And we need to continually consider the human toll this "War" has taken.

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