THE PROBLEM WITH ANTI-DRUG FAIRY TALES (article)

[Guest guest]

Dear Bruce:

 

<< THE PROBLEM WITH ANTI-DRUG FAIRY TALES

by:

 

Salim Muwakkil.

>>

 

This clearly expresses most of my heartfelt views. I appreciate

your courage and candor in sharing with everyone.

 

 

The WOD (War on Drugs) has cost us a fortune. If most of this money had been

directed merely at educational improvements, opportunities and job skills

programs, we would not really need a War on Drugs, let alone a Skirmish on

Drugs, a Police Action on Drugs or even a Military Advisors Only on Drugs.

 

 

We blacken our own vaunted declarations of liberty and pursuit of happiness

when we criminalize an entire class of humanity because they ingest, burn or

use particular substance. It's like my joke on Helium abusers...getting

their voices high...becoming helium addicts...stealing helium tanks from

party stores...balloon crimes. All possible if we outlawed helium

inhalation.

 

Some adults are not responsible with driving cars. Let's outlaw the car

then? Why isn't the crime based on actions? If a regular harm or injury

occurs, prosecute that. Having a material in one's possession did not cause

a crime. "My God, that fellow over there has his pockets filled with

Tungsten! Stop him!" the scenario in a society where Tungsten abuse is

rampant and somehow linked to many social maladies. Now, what exactly does a

drug do in someone's pocket? Briefcase? Trunk? Cupboard? It is altogether

different when we talk about giving or selling something potentially lethal

to children. No problem there...that is a crime. But handguns and rifles

are often given to children by stupid parents..."Yup, Jeb is 14 now, time he

learnt to shoot a rifle and kill a big animal." There are no laws in most

states outlawing this! This is crazy! A gun or rifle is always potentially

lethal. It is designed to hurt something. No one goes out and builds their

fence by firing bullets at nails in the hope that this will propel them into

boards and make using a hammer unnecessary!

 

So who is doing all the brilliant thinking out there?

It's not an issue of crime and problems. It is an issue of money being made

by law enforcement departments, cities, and government agencies. It's

money...big money. It takes big money to have helicopters and SWAT teams.

Nice toys...lots of extra special and highly paid "drug agents" and officers.

 

It's a dirty sham. And the public should wake up and shake the tree loose of

all of the hypocritical leaches hiding in its branches.

 

Just my humble opinion for what it's worth.

 

Blessings

Love,

Zenbob

[Guest guest]

THE PROBLEM WITH ANTI-DRUG FAIRY TALES

 

Salim Muwakkil.

 

Carl Sagan, the late astronomer and prolific author, once wrote a

pseudonymous essay touting marijuana as a stimulus to his intellectual

work.

In fact, according to an article by his biographer in the Aug. 22 San

Francisco Examiner magazine, Sagan was an avid pot smoker for most of his

 

life.

Not surprisingly, news of the influential astronomer's smoking choice

had

to hide under a pseudonym or wait until his death, lest he suffer

America's

puritanical wrath.

It's the same wrath currently being ducked by George W. Bush, as he

refuses to answer questions about his "rebellious" youth. It's a

wrath--fed

by ignorance, mythology and selective morality--that condemns drug use as

 

irredeemably evil.

But the Carl Sagan model of the drug user has been more my experience.

To

be specific, some of the most creative and productive people I've known

also

have used drugs.

I say that not as an advertisement; for I've also encountered those

drug

abusers who have made their (and their families') lives miserable. But as

one

who has witnessed the social carnage of the imbecilic war on drugs, I

find it

increasingly difficult to tolerate the simple-minded propaganda employed

for

that war.

Thus, Bush's current travail offers a rare opportunity to provide a

more

realistic portrayal of the typical drug user. While on one hand I support

 

Bush's decision to end the inquisition into his wayward past, I still

urge

him to fess up if he has used drugs.

Aside from the political benefits of candor, his admission would help

transform the perception of drug users from stereotypes of depraved

sociopaths to something closer to reality. But it's an uphill climb.

In order to justify our punitive treatment of those who use illicit

substances, our cultural media demonizes them and wildly exaggerates the

dangers of the drugs. This "bogeyman strategy" not only insults the

intelligence of adult Americans, it also does little to discourage

substance

abuse.

The bogeyman strategy is the modus operandi of Drug Awareness

Resistance

Education, which is popular in suburban America. According to a recent

University of Illinois study, however, DARE participants are more likely

to

use drugs in the future than students who haven't participated in the

program.

It's clear that youth are more likely to pay heed to our anti-drug

lectures if our "facts" have some connection to reality.

The reality is that people use drugs for many reasons. For most of

humanity's history, drug use was connected to religious worship. It still

is

in many cultures: certain Buddhist and Hindu sects, Rastafarians and

various

Native American groups all use natural sacraments designed to alter

consciousness.

But even in secular cultures, drug use has been connected to a search

for

the Divine. The irresponsible use of LSD, mescaline and other

"psychedelic"

drugs popularized in the West during the 1960s was fueled by these

substances' reputed ability to facilitate mystical states.

For others, drugs provide different routes of escape; their potential

for

abuse is a function of our need for escape.

The drive to alter consciousness is as ancient as humanity itself.

Some

anthropologists argue that psychoactive substances are so common to so

many

cultures, their use may have some evolutionary benefit.

But to acknowledge this ancient relationship, to some, is tantamount

to

sanctioning drug use. Thus we are presented with kindergarten stories

about

the demonic evils of drugs and the despicable characters who purvey them.

In

such a cardboard world, drug users can't grow up to be presidents or

influential astronomers.

True enough, drug addiction is not an effective route to success

(unless

the drug is Prozac or caffeine) and getting caught with an illegal

substance

can cause ruinous criminal sanctions. But those consequences are more the

 

result of social attitudes than the intrinsic effects of the drugs.

We should have learned that substance abuse is not handled well

through

prohibition; the last time drive-by shootings were common was during the

alcohol prohibition era of the 1920s.

The European strategy of "harm reduction"--which decriminalized drug

use

and transforms the problem of drug abuse from one of criminal justice

into

one of public health--seems to be the most logical.

But until folks like George "Dubya" comes clean, or someone with as

high a

profile as Carl Sagan can candidly express his affections for pot, we're

stuck with anti-drug fairy tales and erroneous notions that competence

and

drug use are mutually exclusive.

----------

E-mail: salim4x

 

Copyright Chicago Tribune

 

_________________

Get the Internet just the way you want it.

Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!

Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.