[Vision2020] Failed Drug Policies from Nixon to Bush

[Garrett Clevenger]

Donovan writes:

"We are not bombing people, we are bombing crops. Crops that do nothing but make crooks and evil men rich while forcing poor people in labor intensive activities."


Gambling and whorehousess in Las Vegas (the words used by me in the discussion) aren't people unless there are some inside. Crops in Columbia aren't people, unless they are in the middle. There is a distinction, though, between manmade objects and nature. My point was I give more value to living things than inanimate objects, while saying destroying any of it is evil.

The US has released in Columbia a genetically engineered fungus that attacks coca, a plant that people there have regularly ingested for thousands of years, a plant that helps poor people get through the days of hard work. While in the US, people enrich Starbucks for essentially the same purpose, while mostly disregarding the enormous impact coffee plantations have on ecosystems, and the farmers in those countries.

The fact is, the US is destroying farm land for the long term with its violent actions, and that seems wrong, particularly when you think that it is poor people who rely on that land for their livelihood (afterall, poor farmers down there are often forced to grow coca for the cartels artificially enriched by the war on drugs)

The main reason there are cocaine cartels is because cocaine is illegal. As soon as you ban anything, you create a black market, and gangs will work that market, using violence to ensure their market share.

Since there is a demand for cocaine in the US, there is a lot of money involved, which makes that violence even more likely. And gangs here will continue to fight as long as there is a demand and it is illegal.

Humans like to imbibe. I don't think that will ever change, unless every drug user is shot on the spot. But that seems like an extreme measure to combat what essentially is a personal issue. I'm not a fan of government regulating things consenting adults want to do. I'm definitely not a fan of a never ending war that seems to be making things worse.

All this is just another attempt of the US, in its moral superiority, willing to use violence to get its way, while subjecting other countries to repressive policies that more than likely negatively affect the poorest people there, while enriching the elites.

gclev