I’ve never done drugs of any kind. Never smoked, or taken any drug, other than an occasional aspirin. I bring this up because the drug war kills thousands every year, as happened six months ago in Louisville Kentucky. Cops were doing a drug bust; knocked on the door and announced their presence. When the door opened, a boyfriend of the girl who occupied the apartment, started shooting at the cops. The cops returned fire and killed the girl. It got to a Grand Jury who refused to charge the cops with murder. (I think a Grand Jury could indict a ham sandwich). Then the riots started, not just in Louisville, but in Philly, New York, other big cities, including of course, Portland. As I write this, the riots continue, cops and demonstrators have been shot and I am sure another couple million dollars in vandalism has happened every week or even day at times.
There’s no question but that these continuous riots and arson are being financed by Soros and Antifa, who want to bring down America, but this is about the drug war not those bastards. May they rot in hell.
At the turn of the 1899-1900 century, and a few decades after that, anyone could go into any drug store (note the name DRUG store), and buy cocaine, or any drug anyone desired. Coca Cola had cocaine in it originally, and hence its name “Coke.” Heroin was considered good for a cough and many other illnesses. Was there a huge problem with drug addicts, as there are now? History says no. Want a drug? Go into a drug store and buy it! The drug war is costing America hundreds of billions of dollars each year, not counting the prison sentences for those selling and taking them. Law enforcement going after users and pushers, and medical services for those addicted, is costing billions every year. “Stolen water is sweetest,” and whenever something is illegal, millions are determined to do it, simply for the thrill of doing something illegal. The drug war should be terminated instantly, and those imprisoned because of selling or using them released immediately.
It’s estimated that several thousand die each year from illegal drugs. Not those wrongly proscribed by physicians, but heroin and cocaine mainly. Physician prescribed drugs are killing thousands, but that’s another subject. Illegal drugs rarely kill or maim, but trying to stop their importation and distribution, kills many each year. Arthur Conan Doyle had his Sherlock Holmes addicted to heroin, Dr. William Halstead, a great surgeon and founder of Johns Hopkins medical institute was addicted, as was Al Capone, and they all lived famously and for a long time.
What would be the advantages of ceasing all of the drug wars? Easy! The cross border illegal input from Mexico would instantly cease, because factories would start making drugs here in America. Sound crazy? It’s not, any more than American distilleries making bourbon. Drugs have been illegal for so long, that the concept of making them legal, if accepted, it will be obvious they could be made legally in America. Free enterprise would take over, and prices would drop, as happens whenever there is competition in the market place. Marijuana was illegal in most states, and people used to think that ‘one puff, and you’re hoked for life,’ which obviously is not true. In my State of Colorado, marijuana it is legal if locals vote for it, and there has been no increase in crime. None of it is illegally sneaked in from Mexico, but grown locally. Only tax collections have blossomed. All the cops and drug enforcement agents running the drug war, would have to find a new place in law enforcement. Maybe in Portland, Seattle, Kenosha, Philly, New York, etc.? Prisons would have far fewer inmates, and the costs of maintaining a prisoner would vanish, as would law enforcement and court costs. Would there be a few who would become addicted? Of course, like alcohol, and nicotine, but the drugs probably wouldn’t offend people with cigarette smoke, or driving crazily down highways as drunks do. I hear that drugs make people happy, not violent, unless they can’t buy them at huge prices illegally and risk imprisonment.
It is estimated that 300,000 die each year from lung cancer and fires caused by smokers. My Dad started smoking at 15, and stopped at 63 from lung cancer. I’ve outlived him by 23 years so far, and am going to continue to do so. Alcohol kills close to 40,000 a year from drunk driving, and both alcohol and tobacco are legal, but drugs which are rarely fatal, are illegal.
We’ve done this before you know. Prohibition turned millions of Americans into criminals, killed the domestic alcohol industry, and delighted Canadian distillers, who got rich from prohibition, and still do. Before prohibition, Canadian hooch was unknown here in America. Carrie Nation was axing bars, breaking mirrors, and giving inflammatory speeches about demon rum, while most everyone seemed to be having a good time, even though it was illegal to do so. Speakeasies, rum runners, bootleggers, and the Roaring Twenties, gave way to the FBI, which got started during prohibition. Those having a great time, drank even more. Like drugs are now, consuming and manufacturing alcohol products was illegal, so just about everyone did it. Wine consumption went from .3 to 1.86 gallons of wine per year for each American during prohibition. Whiskey consumption went from .44 to .87 gallons, and beer went from 1.26 to 6.9 gallons per year for each American on average. Moonshiners in the eastern mountains were prospering, and many times poisoning. Lucius Bebee, son of a wealthy banker and writer of famous railroad books, said, “For 13 long years I fought the good fight, along with 160 million other American patriots allied against the infamies of prohibition.” Prohibition became the 18th Amendment to our Constitution, and it wasn’t too long before it was proven a failure and was abolished by the 21st, to everyone’s delight.
During the compulsory 55 MPH speed limits, if you can remember them, no one drove 55. It became a game to go much faster and have radar to detect cops out to make their quota. Stupid laws, such as drug laws, 55 MPH speed limit laws, prohibition, and gambling laws seem to be Republican oriented, who always like to legislate their concept of morality. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” If you love old movies, as I do, everyone smoked in them. It was the style and ‘thing’ to do. In 1965, it was discovered that smoking causes cancer, heart problems, and a host of other disasters to the human body. Without making them illegal, smoking has steadily decreased from close to 70% of Americans who smoked, to today it is less than 25%, and with no law prohibiting it. A law prohibiting smoking, would make people love to violate the law and smoke.
There is nothing in our Constitution allowing the federal government to legislate prohibition of smoking, abortion, alcohol consumption, gambling, or drug use. A state can make such laws, thanks to the Tenth Amendment. Let states make all the morality laws they want. If you don’t like it, go to another state. It’s that simple, but stop trying to legislate ‘morality,’ as some see it anyway. That’s one way to balance the federal budget. Abolishing all the ‘morality’ laws, would save trillions.
My State of Colorado, about forty years ago, decided to legalize gambling, slot machines, and all of the gambling devices so common in casinos. Indians had been building casinos for decades on their reservations, and getting rich from them. Colorado made casinos legal if locals voted for them, just like marijuana. Those that did, are reaping the benefits, both from gambling and marijuana. ‘Playing the numbers,’ used to be a way for an individual to get rich, and there were myriad arrests. The State of Colorado fixed that by legalizing their own numbers game, and the profits from the state lotteries are unbelievable. I would never play the Colorado Lottery, as in any gambling procedure, ‘The house Always Wins.’, but fools love it, and fools get drunk and buy drugs illegally, and smoke themselves to death still. Maybe we should make laws prohibiting people from doing themselves harm with alcohol, nicotine, and gambling, to join the silly drug war laws? Come on Republicans, let’s get on the morality bandwagon and make everything you don’t believe in illegal! Obviously, drug wars are a disaster, waiting to be removed.
-Don Stott
don@coloradogold.com