[Vision2020] Failed Drug Policies from Nixon to Bush

[Tom Hansen]

As I had mentioned earlier, I support legalization and regulation of MOST 
drugs, NOT all drugs.

Looking back upon my twenty years in the service I feel confident in 
saying that I have seen a considerably wider range of, and more numerous 
instances of, effects of drugs (both legal and illegal) than Donovan 
Arnold or Matt Decker.

I have seen soldiers so "loaded" on cocaine that they appeared 
artificially lucid enough to maintain three conversations simultaneously, 
yet not know what time or what day it was, until they passed out.

I have seen soldiers suffer alcoholic withdrawals so severe (way beyond 
the "shakes" and the "bends") that they would do absolutely anything for a 
taste, including physically assault whoever they were talking to.

Then there are the codeine junkies.  Now there is an experience for you.

The Army managed to weed out most of the heavy drug users (heroin and 
others).

Where the Army went wrong, in my opinion, is they did one of two things 
with these addicts.  They either court-martialed them (ultimately 
discharging them with either dishonorable or bad conduct discharges) or 
(more expediently) processed them for a general discharge and dumped them 
onto the civilian streets.

Incarceration does nothing to correct the problem.  

What these souls need is true rehabilitation and therapy.  It works.  Look 
at what the Good Hope Institute has accomplished.  But this option costs 
money, time, and effort.  People are too DAMNED ready and eager to simply 
label these souls and toss them aside.

Those cocaine and heroin addicts I mentioned earlier purchased their fixes 
illegally.  The "fixes" have always been and will always be there.  It's 
just a matter of paying the price.  Addicts will steal and kill to get a 
fix.

The surest way to control this behavior is to legalize and regulate it.  
By "legalize" I do NOT mean selling it out of a McDonalds drive-thru.

Well . . . that's my two cents.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho



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