> Caldwell almost reaches a crescendo in the last two
> paragraphs. He is unwilling finally to damn the war
> on drugs as much as it fully deserves. But he does point
> out that it has high costs, and points out rightly that it
> all rests on the fundamental premise that no addiction,
> not even heroin, is a medical problem -- that addiction
> does not exist. Said out loud like that, it's a laughable
> proposition. This is why people like Bennett have
> concentrated their fire on the (sometimes questionable)
> extensions of the notion of addiction -- because their
> real goal is to cover the weakness of this reactionary
> stronghold, and to cut off any sympathy for addicts.
> Because once we admit that drug addiction is a
> physical rather than a moral problem, it transports the
> problem from the realm of crime to the realm of health.
> It makes of drugs something that are a problem only
> when one is addicted to them, and thus where
> criminalization creates criminals where none should
> exist. And in conjunction with the gross costs and
> failures of the war on drugs, it points to the completely
> opposite strategy of regulation, legalization and
> treatment. In other words, the strategy we've
> applied to alcohol ever since prohibition failed.
I agree, except I'm not convinced the Drug War is ultimately about drugs.
It's always looked to me more like a conservative "values" revo with SWAT teams. Hence the fact methods that worked quite well at dealing with addiction (i.e. methadone clinics for heroin addicts) were shut down by Drug Warriors.
Dan Baum, who did an extensive book of interviews on the subject, _Smoke and Mirrors_, said William Bennett was the *only* major Drug War figure who refused to be interviewed. Dan wanted to get the uber-prig on late night TV and set the drug dogs on the cash in his wallet. The point would be to show how common it is for dollars to read positive for cocaine. <sigh> A boy can dream...
-- Shane, currently playing Lou Reed's "Sex With Your Parents"
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