The timing is impeccable. #bernonedown

It is now and has always been a BUSINESS of drugs and a war for CONTROL. Drugs are a mechanism of control. Drugs have been and still are used as a tool of both domestic and foreign governments to exert control over populations- often to destabilize certain elements and keep them “in their place.” The money surrounding drugs is an obvious method of control. In Afghanistan, the opium fields are everywhere and quite obvious. Patrols walk right passed them daily and for the most part- they are ignored. The countries economy and power structure is built around opium. The same is true in many areas of south and Central America with other drugs.

Stopping the production of those drugs would have a ripple effect and cause instability. Volatility one can manage is better for control than instability one cannot predict and thus cannot manage against. The production and dissemination of drugs is advantageous to certain parties- for example many developed countries in the west benefit from the exploitation of the conditions that exist and the repression of certain peoples through the drug trade.

America and Britain have a long history into recent times of using drugs as a tool to get minority groups and lower classes complacent and in no condition to gain strength and status. The opium wars and the dissemination of opium are classic examples of this- and local law enforcement agencies have historically often ignored such drug problems so long as the drugs and related issues stayed within these communities- because removing the drugs would cause economic instabilities and remove the thing keeping these communities numb and enfeebled.

We’ve seen more deaths in the last 100 years from illegal narcotics than “WMD’s” in the west but when it came to that war we went to the source and eliminated it didn’t we? We’ve seen more destruction from illegal narcotics in the west in the last 50 years that from terrorism but again- we took the latter war to the source in a way we have not done with drugs haven’t we? We applied resources and actions to the combat of terrorism that the victims of the drug trade have not seen levied in their memory. If we aren’t going to take the war on drugs seriously- then yes. Let’s end it.

Many countries have decriminalized or even legalized all manner of narcotics- and if we are going to legally allow people to smoke (a habit said by psychologists and doctors to be as harder or harder to break than heroine) if we let people drink (a habit which causes more deaths, domestic violence and other non drug related crimes, than opium...) perhaps we should ask: why not let people have the choice?

At the very least we could decriminalize the use- it doesn’t seem to be an effective deterrent and serves only to kick people already down- which itself is a recipe for continued abuse of drugs in existing abusers. The small time sellers who are often acting out of economic circumstance and lack of opportunity aren’t on average likely to have better finances and more opportunity after repeat convictions for petty drug dealing.

Drugs often invite petty crime and violent crime- but when is the last time we saw the Budweiser guys shooting it out with the Heineken group? Moving things above the board gives people a legal venue to handle their disputes. What Justice is a drug dealer to seek if he is robbed by another? He can’t go to the police and report that he had a bunch of cocaine and an unregistered gun stollen can he? His only recourse is self applied justice or self applied enforcement of his interests. He can’t sign and keep contracts with other dealers on territories and agreements- sue in court with the backing of the police should a rival dealer sell on his block.