Given when the US shits the bed, the rest of the world has to lie in it, after a bit of arm twisting most of the governments in the western world queued up to join the colours.
When you take into account politicians behaving like idiots doesn’t come cheap. The costs to taxpayers and victims of the war on drugs have become enormous, the USA alone is currently spending upwards of $60 billion annually on a war it knows it cannot win.
Across the world governments have wasted trillions and what is the end result? There are more drugs on the streets today than there were in 1971. The oligarchs who control the illicit international drug trade rarely get prosecuted. It’s the same for the Banksters and Lawyers who wash their ill gotten gains - and street dealers are replaced within hours of being lifted by the police.
Countless lives have been ruined, not only because the drugs may be adulterated with potentially harmful substances but the fact that they’re illegal.
Prisons are bursting at the seams with people who are incarcerated for drug offences, the majority of whom would never have seen the inside of a jail if illicit drugs had been legalised and regulated. The police run around like blue-arse flies crashing down doors and arresting people on the street for drugs which are much less harmful than alcohol which is legal.
Despite all this the overwhelming majority of senior politicians still support the war on drugs. As to the minority of those who take elicit drugs and become addicts, they’re regarded by governments, most doctors and the MSM as bad, mad or sad.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Throughout history, rightly or wrongly, people have always taken narcotics and used cannabis. There is nothing new about it. When compared with the situation today in the first half of the 20th century Britain had an enlightened way to deal with addicts which was considered to be amongst the most progressive in the world. Those who became addicted to narcotics like heroin were treated by GP’s with a weekly or monthly prescription adequate for their needs until they decided to withdraw or not. During this time they were expected to get on with their lives and most did successfully. This treatment was not dissimilar to how some forms of diabetes are treated today, i.e. an injection daily.*
However there are rays of light which are changing this situation. After a radical government in Uruguay became the first country to explicitly legalise cannabis in 2015, other countries have followed, including 15 US states and the sky hasn’t fallen in.
Oregon went a step further and made history when it recently passed the first state law in the US to decriminalise possession of all illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine and LSD. The measure backed by criminal justice reform groups is aimed at diverting people from jails and prisons by treating possession as a citation and expanding access to free treatment and recovery.
Sadly the UK government is still in the Stone Age and refuses to depart from the infantile and failed ‘war on drugs’ until they get a green light from the US federal government which is not forthcoming.
Even the tens of thousands of people in the UK with conditions as wide-ranging as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and depression have been denied prescriptions for cannabis despite the drug for medical conditions having been legal for more than two years. The only option for these patients has been to go to private doctors to obtain private prescriptions, but this can cost them hundreds of pounds a month and the overwhelming majority of them cannot afford it.
If common sense eventually prevails and illicit drugs are legalised and regulated, what happened in the USA when Alcohol prohibition ended will be replicated and big business will eventually manufacture, legally, Cannabis and other illicit drugs which will be brought and sold like any other commodities. I will conclude with an Albert Einstein quote which describes the war on drugs perfectly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again but expecting different results.
* Whilst some addicts receive a NHS Methadone liquid prescription as a substitute for heroin, it’s treatment by numbers by the government as the Psychiatrists (which itself is revealing), who signed the prescription are unable to set the prescribing limit for individual addicts.
⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.
Across the world governments have wasted trillions and what is the end result? There are more drugs on the streets today than there were in 1971. The oligarchs who control the illicit international drug trade rarely get prosecuted. It’s the same for the Banksters and Lawyers who wash their ill gotten gains - and street dealers are replaced within hours of being lifted by the police.
Countless lives have been ruined, not only because the drugs may be adulterated with potentially harmful substances but the fact that they’re illegal.
Prisons are bursting at the seams with people who are incarcerated for drug offences, the majority of whom would never have seen the inside of a jail if illicit drugs had been legalised and regulated. The police run around like blue-arse flies crashing down doors and arresting people on the street for drugs which are much less harmful than alcohol which is legal.
Despite all this the overwhelming majority of senior politicians still support the war on drugs. As to the minority of those who take elicit drugs and become addicts, they’re regarded by governments, most doctors and the MSM as bad, mad or sad.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Throughout history, rightly or wrongly, people have always taken narcotics and used cannabis. There is nothing new about it. When compared with the situation today in the first half of the 20th century Britain had an enlightened way to deal with addicts which was considered to be amongst the most progressive in the world. Those who became addicted to narcotics like heroin were treated by GP’s with a weekly or monthly prescription adequate for their needs until they decided to withdraw or not. During this time they were expected to get on with their lives and most did successfully. This treatment was not dissimilar to how some forms of diabetes are treated today, i.e. an injection daily.*
However there are rays of light which are changing this situation. After a radical government in Uruguay became the first country to explicitly legalise cannabis in 2015, other countries have followed, including 15 US states and the sky hasn’t fallen in.
Oregon went a step further and made history when it recently passed the first state law in the US to decriminalise possession of all illicit drugs including heroin, cocaine and LSD. The measure backed by criminal justice reform groups is aimed at diverting people from jails and prisons by treating possession as a citation and expanding access to free treatment and recovery.
Sadly the UK government is still in the Stone Age and refuses to depart from the infantile and failed ‘war on drugs’ until they get a green light from the US federal government which is not forthcoming.
Even the tens of thousands of people in the UK with conditions as wide-ranging as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and depression have been denied prescriptions for cannabis despite the drug for medical conditions having been legal for more than two years. The only option for these patients has been to go to private doctors to obtain private prescriptions, but this can cost them hundreds of pounds a month and the overwhelming majority of them cannot afford it.
If common sense eventually prevails and illicit drugs are legalised and regulated, what happened in the USA when Alcohol prohibition ended will be replicated and big business will eventually manufacture, legally, Cannabis and other illicit drugs which will be brought and sold like any other commodities. I will conclude with an Albert Einstein quote which describes the war on drugs perfectly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again but expecting different results.
* Whilst some addicts receive a NHS Methadone liquid prescription as a substitute for heroin, it’s treatment by numbers by the government as the Psychiatrists (which itself is revealing), who signed the prescription are unable to set the prescribing limit for individual addicts.
⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.
I live in Coatbridge, a town in Scotland of about forty thousands, been to two drug death funerals this year at the last one we were counting how many people we knew of who had died of drugs since the lockdown started, we got to over twenty, this was in September. We did the same with covid and got about six or seven. Now I know that's just people we've heard of and might not be reflective of the whole town, but it's insightful. Some deaths are acceptable, if there's a chance of Western middle class people dying, shut everything down! they can't be allowed to die! they're 'good people' therefore immortal. People don't give a fuck about drug deaths, which blows a hole in their 'Stay safe, save lives' slogan. It should be 'stay away from the riff raff and fuck their lives'
ReplyDeleteMick
ReplyDeleteI am reading "Pills, Powder, and Smoke. Inside the Bloody War on Drugs" by Antony Loewenstein at the moment.
It expands on all the points you make in your excellent contribution and more.
Well worth a read.
Why are the governments of the world putting the control of drugs in the hands of criminals?
ReplyDeleteIn the US the CIA still creams lots of revenue from drug importation to fund it's various little escapades over seas. You may remember the movie Air America, well that was based on a true story and the huge operation the CIA had running moving heroin in Laos. Nothing changed.
Weed only became legalized when it became apparent that the profit margins were not worth the risk. The spooks figured they could rake in more in legimate tax from it if it was legalized with the added benefit of zero risk.
'Harder' drugs such as heroin and coke face a huge task to become legal and the spooks will fight this through every step behind closed doors in Government as it affects their cash cow.
Interestingly, with the rise of the Darknet and drug testing facillities the illegal market in narcotics has started to become a place were dealers are quality testing and making sure those they supply aren't going to OD on their gear. The obvious reason being they don't want their customer to die and want their repeated custom.
So now we live in a world were spooks import the stuff and the criminals quality test, and those who quality test tend to deal direct to the middle class. Those in David's Coatbridge get the hot shot cut with shite and nobody cares because the rest of society are a bunch of fucking hypocrites.
Decriminalize and treat not apprehend and incarcerate!