U.S. Ignores Voices Of Reason On Drugs

"When you have 40 years of a policy that is not bringing results, you have to ask if it's time to change it." Those are the words of former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria, and they make a lot of sense. It's been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If that is true, then the American "war on drugs" is completely insane.

The United States has tried to eliminate drug use for many decades by making it a criminal offense to possess certain drugs -- the drugs not popular with the people in power. The drugs of the power brokers (such as alcohol and tobacco) are legal and actually more dangerous than some illegal drugs (such as marijuana, mescaline and LSD). For some unknown reason, the United States has decided that some drugs are legal and socially acceptable while others are illegal and socially unacceptable.

Of course this makes no sense, but laws are seldom based on common sense -- they are based on politics and social mores (neither of which are a good basis for law-making). The fact is that there are millions of people who use drugs (over 250 million worldwide) and most of them work and lead normal lives. Americans have been propagandized into believing that drug use and drug abuse are the same thing -- they aren't. Drug use is recreational while drug abuse is a medical problem, and only a small portion of drug users become drug abusers (like a small portion of drinkers become alcoholics).

Gaviria (along with the former Secretary-General of the U.N. Kofi Annan, former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo, and former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, founder of Virgin Group Richard Branson, and former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and others) is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. This commission has recommended that the United States (and other countries) change drug policy. They want drug use to be decriminalized and drug abuse to be treated as the medical problem that it really is.

They made the recommendation to the United States because the United States pretty much controls drug policy worldwide -- largely through foreign aid grants, loans, diplomatic efforts, and military power). Until the United States alters it stance on the criminalizing of drugs, few (if any) other countries will. And the United States has no intention of changing its failed policy.

The Obama administration quickly rejected the commission's report, deeming it unworthy of even discussion or debate. They seem to think that decriminalization of drugs would lead to widespread availability and increased drug use. This completely ignores the fact that drugs of all kinds are already readily available to anyone who wants them (and between 1998 and 2008 the use of marijuana rose 8% and the use of cocaine rose 27%). The "war on drugs" has not stopped or reduced drug use and has not decreased the availability of drugs.

What it has done is create some powerful criminal cartels who are getting filthy rich off the black market in drugs and making the world a more dangerous place for everyone (just like what happened when this country tried to prohibit alcohol). As long as drugs are illegal this black market will exist and the illegal cartels will thrive (regardless of who they have to kill to do it).

And the cartels are not the only ones getting fat off the "war on drugs". Policing agencies on all levels have gotten a ton of money they don't want to lose -- huge amounts both from the taxpayers and from seized currency. Not to mention all the new prisons (both public and private) that have been built to house mostly non-violent drug offenders (and we still don't have nearly enough prison space to incarcerate all drug offenders). Decriminalization of drugs would probably eliminate the need for half the current prison space -- and save a ton of taxpayer money spent on interdiction efforts which don't work effectively.

The current "war on drugs" is a failed policy -- and it has been failing for decades. But American politicians are unwilling to even discuss changing this failed policy. Instead, they spend more money every year to fund the continuing failure. For them it is easier to continue wasting taxpayer dollars (and destroying the lives of recreational drug users) than to face the reality of their massive failure.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy's recommendations make a lot of sense, and they deserve to be debated in the public forum and at all levels of government. But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. That would require political courage, and that's something that's in very short supply these days.