The War on Drugs

As Americans we are surely guilty of one thing: We have allowed our precious ability to see “whole pictures” fade. Instead we see issue upon issue— one next to another. Even when we interact with one another we ask: “Are you for or against abortion?” “Democratic or Republican?” Are you for or against the wars?” Our world views break down into thousands of daily global and personal issues: War, laundry, economy, pick up John, economy, justice, health care, war, dinner, pay-check, tired… and on and on. We survive on sound bites but we do not thrive. It seems increasingly rarer that one would connect the issues, seeing them as ONE picture. This becomes hyper-relevant in times such as the ones we now live in. If we are unable to see how the war effects the economy which effects laundry, dinner and the gas to pick up John—which leaves us tired at the end of our day; then we are uninformed and ill-prepared to make effective decisions that better our daily lives and whole of the country.

The “War on Drugs” is similar. We legislate our laws based on whether or not we agree to condone the reality that people DO drugs. Moving forward, more like sideways, without acknowledging the role that other issues play in the evolution of American drug use. We move sideways without acknowledging the affects of our legal drugs on the American community. We move sideways without accepting that drug addiction (once achieved or inherited) becomes a medical issue that requires medical attention. We move sideways masking our own rampant drug use. Though we are not alone. The many drug scandals that have ripped through our elected officials are, at the very least, proof of that. We trust ourselves with secret freedoms but we don’t trust others to share those freedoms in the light. We move sideways refusing direct links between unemployment to self-worth to drug abuse, OR ill prepared and uneducated parents to children with drug habits OR unworthy parents to children craving escapism through drugs OR the lack of drug education in our schools and in our homes to children choosing drugs over their best interests. We move sideways spending taxpayers’ money to fill our prisons with non-violent offenders. We move sideways disregarding the fact that when you ARE homeless there is nothing better to do with your time than to forget that you ARE homeless. We move sideways ignoring the influence our pharmaceutical industry hold in our legislative solutions to these problems. We continue to move sideways knowing that economic class and drug abuse go hand in hand. We move sideways, finding ourselves in new places but we do not move forward. How do we manage to move FORWARD without considering the web of issues that will inevitably affect the solutions we chose?

I propose a different perspective that takes into account a larger “picture” of the conflicts inherent to the “War on Drugs.” Many of our children have prescriptions for drugs such as Ritalin. As well, many parents have personal prescriptions for mood elevators. As pharmaceutical regulations have relaxed, our community has seen an explosion of mood and energy management in the last ten years. Our abilities to manage conflict in our own minds and between one another are diminishing. Pharmaceutical commercials, which were once illegal, now play between our favorite shows and our nightly news. We ALL want drugs. Some of them are legal and some of them are illegal. Many Americans fear that they suffer from mood disorders or restless legs syndrome. Are we really that sick? Do you, our elected officials, really STILL believe that the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA currently hold our best interests above the interests of profit?

Every one of us has a family member that has ruined some part of their life from their use of drugs: failed marriages, lost jobs, child fatalities, car accidents, overdoses, domestic abuse, child abuse, cancer, emphysema, and on and on. The drug might have been cocaine, Oxy Contin, Methamphetamine, muscle relaxers, anti-depressants, alcohol, nicotine… etc, but many of the long term emotional or physical effects on the individual and their family are the same. I propose that ignorance, lack of moderation, and lack of judgment are larger factors in drug use—more so then the actual drug that is used. I further propose that through passing common sense legislation for selective drug legalization, taxation, and regulation we will begin to lessen these burdens, which have pained our society. I believe that, our road to success in this war on drugs requires us to stop spending money on incarcerating non-violent drug offenders and instead begin collecting money from drug users for investment in programs that keep our society healthy. Drugs are a part of this society and they will not go away. We DON’T have that type of power. It exists and it is not something that accepts our opinions on its validity. I believe that if we legislate laws that increase the quality of life for every American, inform our children about what drugs are and the many roles that drugs can play in their lives, encourage rehabilitation aggressively, refuse the hands of the pharmaceutical industry in protecting our children then, and only then, do we show true commitment to the war on drugs. We may not eradicate drug use in modern society but we can put an end to ignorant drug use by educating our citizens in the many ways to live functional lives—we can offer them priorities, support systems, and references to navigate their daily lives and, by default, become better society for having done so.

We must learn to work with our society rather than against it.

• Further restrict the number of lobbyist employed on behalf of industry in an attempt to humble the influence of industry in the politics of functional Democracy.

• Restore restrictions to the pharmaceutical industry. Return to the previous limits on when and where the pharmaceutical companies can advertise to our communities. Advertising to the public on pharmaceutical issues merely confuses the public and makes it more difficult for doctors to offer competent care. We are not doctors and we should not diagnose ourselves. Leave prescription choices to the doctors who have been trained to know the differences and affects of drugs prescribed.

• Implement stronger limits on what drug reps can offer to doctors. Our doctors should make decisions regarding our health matters based on the education they do and have received rather than the gifts and favors of sharply dressed people sporting scripts written by Pharmaceutical powers. We need to be able to trust our doctors.

• Accountability for Pharmaceutical companies. We are learning more and more that is not uncommon that companies intentionally mislead the public by offering and promoting products they know to be harmful. The pharmaceutical industry is no different. We have learned this through the experience of personal sorrows. Hephren and Vioxx are examples. The industry preys on people that need medications to survive. Because of their needs, it is easy to cast doubt in the mind of anyone who might see the connection between popular prescriptions and death or impairment. It is important to note that the people who have dedicated their lives to curing the diseases of the world are NOT the same people who sell the cures to the people. Greed often forces the hand of benevolence and the result is that human beings become: Numbers, Profits, and Acceptable losses. We deserve better.

• Re-negotiate the government’s right to haggle for the prices of prescriptions offered in Medicare drug program.

• List the alcohol content percentage on all beer bottles. If people know what they are drinking they can make choices accordingly.

• Continue to address Crack VS. Cocaine in criminal sentencing: The distinction, in sentencing guidelines, between crack cocaine and powder cocaine has needlessly populated our prisons along poverty lines. Recent legislation has opened the door to fairer sentencing in such criminal cases but there is much work yet to be done.

• Legalize hemp farming: We have the opportunity to create a brand new lucrative industry in America at a time when joblessness is rising and farmers are struggling. Why would we not allow this?

• Legalize Medical marijuana at the federal level: People are in pain and medical marijuana can help them. What types of “values” lend greater importance to prohibition over relieving the pains of disease?

• Address the growing trend in society of medicating our children: I have watched, year after year, more and more children being prescribed medications for what, some would say, is just simply a display of rambunctious nature. I’m not saying that children do not suffer from ailments that require mood altering medications but I am saying that I am increasingly suspicious of how prevalent these ailments have become in modern society and I can’t help but notice that these ailments followed the deregulation of advertising in the pharmaceutical industry. If our children are suffering from such ailments to such large degrees then WE, as a nation, are ignoring an epidemic of huge and devastating proportions.

• Address the modern culture of Anti-depressants: I suspect that the adult usage of mood altering prescriptions has trickled down to our children. I’ve known many people who use anti-depressants and many of those people had difficulties that warranted those prescriptions—many seemed to enjoy the attention that came with needing that prescription more than they actually needed the prescription. Mood altering prescriptions are a new phenomenon in modern society. Obviously, I’m not a doctor but again I must say that IF we are this sick, as a society, then WHY is no one addressing this epidemic on a national level?