How About Some Biological Independence?
I'm talking about the ridiculous war on drugs, and the notion that the government can tell us where we go in our heads. How can this be consitutional? Vicki Ross Havens writes:
". . . it is our judgment that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with police states." --William F. Buckley, Jr. Ed., National Review, 2/12/96The first shot fired in our now almost-Hundred Years War on drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914--the first national law to criminalize drugs. The Harrison Narcotics Act came about through the efforts of politicians, as well as of certain religious groups that viewed taking psychoactive drugs as sinful. These efforts eventually led to penal statutes under which the "sinners" become criminals and go to jail. Thus was laid the cornerstone of today's U.S. anti-drug laws, and thus began the demonization of "addicts," "pushers," "junkies," "marijuana," "heroin," etc.
President Richard M. Nixon declared an "all out global war on the drug menace" in 1972 after having proclaimed it a "national emergency." Bill Wylie Kellerman, a contributing editor for Sojourners magazine, characterizes the war as politically-motivated, parlayed by later administrations, particularly those of Reagan and Bush, into an effort to fill the "immediate need to find new 'enemies' to replace 'communists' in the ongoing manufacture of public consensus."
Like all wars, the drug war is extremely expensive, currently costing the federal government $14 billion per year. According to Craig Horowitz, this figure excludes war expenditures of state and local governments, which add another estimated $14 billion per year, and also excludes incarceration costs, which in 1994 were more than $315 million for the 10,000 people sentenced in that year alone for nonviolent drug offenses ("The No Win War," New Yorker, February 5, 1996). Horowitz estimates that "the direct budgetary costs of drug prohibition in America probably approaches $100 billion yearly." For comparison, note that the budget for the Department of Defense for the current fiscal year is approximately $267 billion (Institute for Better Education through Resource Technology).
It is also a war that holds hostage an increasing number of our Constitutionally-granted civil liberties in a virtual de facto repeal of our Bill of Rights.
Here's one example she gives:
The Ninth AmendmentAmendment 9. The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
According to a series of Supreme Court decisions, the right to privacy is one of the unexpressed rights of the people. Invasions of privacy by the government is considered one of the vilest characteristics of life in a dictatorship; they bring to mind scenes from Hitler's Germany. Nevertheless, the War on Drugs has encroached on this right in many ways, including the following:
·The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency maintains a computer bank (the Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Information System) containing the names of more than 1.5 million people. Posted in federal buildings are 1-800 numbers that one can use to report any person one suspects of illegal drug activity. The caller is not required to give his name or to present evidence or to appear in court--but the reported name goes into the computer system, even though more than 95% are not even under investigation.
·In several states, hospitals must submit for prosecution any drug-positive urine tests of pregnant women, even though urine tests have a reputation for unreliability. One positive urine test has ruined many budding careers, and now parents can purchase an over-the-counter urine test kit for determining drug activity of their children. Children may also be forced to be tested at school, and some private schools state proudly that they require repeated urine tests.
·Helicopters are permitted to fly low (100 feet) and to spy randomly into people's homes in efforts to catch possible drug use.
·Some critically and terminally ill patients are denied the use of many controlled substances, such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, that have valuable therapeutic applications.
·Entire families of drug defendants can be evicted from or denied public housing. Drug offenders are ineligible for some college loan programs.
·Finally, add to the list of concerns the right of self-determination and to ingest substances if one chooses to do so.
...The war on drugs is failing. More and more social scientists, judges, and law enforcement officers are indicting our current narcotic policies as ineffective, counterproductive, and harmful--a position directly contrary to the positions of Congress and of the President.
Eric Sevaried observed that "The chief cause of problems is solutions." More of our civil rights will be quietly sabotaged . . . until we are willing to attribute the suffering to the War on Drugs and the narcotics laws (and their consequences) themselves, rather than the actual drugs (and their use/abuse).
Check out the Drug War Clock to see how many of our taxpayer dollars have been spent on it this year.
I think your numbers are old, because the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1815, a $441 billion defense budget for FY 2006.
Atomic weapons programs are now under the Department of Energy, the two wars are "off budget items" which account for another $300 billion since they started, past military obligations (veterans benefits/debt from prior conflicts), etc etc. It's well over 1/2 $Trillion a year now.
"The chief cause of problems is solutions." Great line, and so true with most things in life.
eric at July 4, 2006 8:24 AM
over the counter urine tests for parental use has nothing to do with government, and neither does the use of those tests by private schools.
i highly doubt that a helicopter flying at 100 feet would be doing it for the purpose of looking in people's windows for somebody rolling a joint. most likely, they would be using an infrared sensor to look for signs of someone growing it. that'd focus police efforts on the inhabitants, but, iirc, it's inadmissible in court. either that, or the aircraft are searching for marijuana grows outdoors, which wouldn't normally be right on someone's property, but rather in state and national parks.
the cross-border narcotics trade is pernicious. buy american.
g*mart at July 4, 2006 5:52 PM
omg what the heck is going on! this is a very informative post, thank you for taking the time to write it. just wanted to let everyone know the Olive Garden is giving out free meals for a month for facebook users. check it out americanhealthtoday.com/olive-garden/
Larochelle@gmail.com at May 9, 2011 3:29 PM
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