Poisoning the Well With Good Intentions

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In America, drug addiction is the only disease we treat as an intolerable crime. Part of that comes from the unfortunate belief that drug addiction is not a disease but rather a symptomatic trait of weak and depraved people. However, most people who actually have family or friends that have suffered through drug addiction may have come to the realization that the issue is just a bit more complex than simply the province of depravity.

Despite imaging studies that have shown specific abnormalities in the brains of some, but not all, addicted individuals, plus further research that supports the assertion of addiction being a disease rather than strictly a behavior, our federal government persecutes drug addicts with zealous fervor. In addition, since the advent of the Marijuana Tax Act, our federal government has traditionally pursued an end to drug abuse in a counterproductive and often detrimental way. Historically, our lawmakers have been persuaded by personal bias and bad science than by facts and common sense.

The latest example of this comes from Fox News (you know, the conservative propaganda channel) of all places. The article states that, “An organization representing local officials said Tuesday that the White House is not paying enough attention to a growing methamphetamine epidemic.

The localities say they need more help from the federal government to combat methamphetamine, a powerful and highly addictive stimulant that has spread throughout the country through distribution from home laboratories.

Fifty-eight percent of local law enforcement agencies in a National Association of Counties (NACo) survey released Tuesday call methamphetamine their most serious drug problem. Cocaine is named the No. 1 problem by 19 percent, while marijuana is named by 17 percent.”

I think we need some historical perspective here in order to understand why the Bush administration, as well as every other since the beginning of the 20th century, has regarded marijuana to be the very worst of all known drugs despite being one of the least harmful (including tobacco and alcohol).

The first attempts to prohibit recreational marijuana use started in the Rocky Mountain and southwestern states, namely Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. The laws, that were passed, while high minded they might have seemed at the time, were in fact passed for nefarious purposes. The laws were intended to control the migrant Mexican population of that region.

The records of the time reflect an undercurrent of racist beliefs that informed their collective decision making process. Probably the best single statement was the statement of a proponent of Texas first marijuana law. He said on the floor of the Texas Senate, and I quote, "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff (referring to marijuana) is what makes them crazy." Or, as the proponent of Montana's first marijuana law said, (and imagine this on the floor of the state legislature) and I quote, "Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona."

Shortly after these laws were passed Commissioner Harry Anslinger, of the newly named Federal Bureau of Narcotics, waged a propaganda war against marijuana that resulted in similar laws being passed throughout the Northeast. The theory was that even though they didn’t actually have much a “Mexican problem,” per se, the lawmakers though that the Yankees would simply substitute the new drug de jour, marijuana for other drugs, such as heroin, which has just been prohibited by the Harrison Narcotic Act.

The New York Times in an editorial in 1919 said, "No one here in New York uses this drug marijuana. We have only just heard about it from down in the Southwest," and here comes the substitution. "But," said the New York Times; "we had better prohibit its use before it gets here. Otherwise" -- here's the substitution concept -- "all the heroin and hard narcotics addicts cut off from their drug by the Harrison Act and all the alcohol drinkers cut off from their drug by 1919 alcohol Prohibition will substitute this new and unknown drug marijuana for the drugs they used to use."

From that point on you had the sort of “Reefer Madness” propaganda that has plagued both casual users and the medical field alike. Common sense has yet to prevail where fear and racism have built an empire. In short, we aren’t effectively dealing with addiction and furthermore we are concentrating on the less harmful drugs and letting the more harmful ones permeate further into the social strata.

That of course takes us back the aforementioned Fox article. “…the organization was critical of President Bush’s drug policy, which has focused heavily on preventing marijuana use in children and adolescents. The strategy includes widespread media campaigns against marijuana and a focus on school-based drug testing.

The administration should focus on methamphetamine “as much as they do marijuana,” Larry E. Naake, the group’s executive director, told reporters.

“We think that there now is an epidemic that needs to get their attention,” he said.

“Our message to the administration is that there is also an additional drug epidemic that is occurring in this country,” said Angelo D. Kyle, the NACo president and a county board member from Lake County, Ill.

Officials complained that the rising use of methamphetamine – also known as “meth” -- is increasingly responsible for child neglect cases and arrests for domestic violence. Overdoses with the drug, as well as poisonings and burn injuries from manufacturing labs, are putting increased pressure on rural and county hospitals, they say.

Forty percent of 303 counties in 13 states surveyed by the group reported an increase in neglected children placed outside the home by child welfare departments because of methamphetamine use.

The 2006 federal budget cuts $804 million in federal grants that localities used to police methamphetamines and other drugs. The White House budget states that the funds, called the Justice Assistance Program, “do not have a record of demonstrating results.”

“It’s causing us a tremendous problem,” Naake said of the cuts. The group wants Congress to spend more money on methamphetamine law enforcement and treatment programs for localities.”

In my professional opinion, the drug war, which was racist an ill informed from the start, needs to end. Medical professional should have complete province over whom should receive drugs, and which drugs they should be. To continue to piss money on prosecutions and seizures away is to continue to perpetuate a social and psychological disease while doing nothing substantial to curb said issue. It is a crime against every citizen no different than locking people whom have HIV/AIDS or cancer.