I've always been a conservative when it has come to economic policy and on politics in general. On social issues I too have been conservative with the exception of a women's right to an abortion. I've always supported a woman's right to choose. I was a hawk during the Vietnam war, the Gulf war and the war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq is a different matter. On the issue of drugs I've always supported the so called war on drugs. The number of lives ruined and lost due to drug use is appalling to say the least.
However, on the issue of drugs, I've changed my mind 180 degrees. After all the years and the billions of dollars spent, I think we have to admit that the war on drugs has been a complete and utter failure. Not just in the United States but in the world. I suppose it's understandable. There is just too much easy money in drug trafficking. Arrest a ton of small time dealers and an occasional king pin and the vacancies are filled immediately if not sooner.
Ladies and gentlemen it is more than time to make a change in our approach to the issue of drugs. I believe a drastic change is in order. I, Jim Gourdie, have deride on numerous occasions the liberal drug policies of Holland and Portugal; and now I'm saying that these have not gone far enough. I'm saying it's time to legalize all drugs and control their sale in the same way we do with alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. Clearly, this is not a new idea. A number of people have advocated idea for years and I have always scorned them. Well now I'm one of them.
Having lived in Venezuela for the last seventeen years, I'm accustomed to read and to listen to Spanish language news not only from Venezuela but also from Mexico, El Salvador Bolivia and Colombia. This is what has changed my perspective on this issue. It is staggering the number of lives ruined and lost on a daily bases due to drug trafficking. These countries are the principle sources of the drugs that enter the United States. The cartels and mafias are all ways fighting for control of this lucrative business. They are killing each other and anyone else that happens to be in the way. Wtih their never ending supply of U.S. dollars they are able to corrupt government officials as well as police and military officials; and those they can't corrupt they kill. In Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia, drug mafias have taken control of entire cities. There is one city of five hundred thousand that I recently read about in Mexico not far from Loredo, Texas, where the town's people have set up a Twitter network to warn each other of the mafias movements so that people can hopefully stay out of harms way. These people live in constant fear for their lives. In Colombia there is the gorillas army known as the FARC which in English stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The FARC was formed over fifty years ago by left wing extremist for the intended purpose of over throwing the elected government for their own political interest. They eventually got into drug trafficking in order to finance their cause. But over time the FARC became just one more drug cartel And so in Colombia the kidnappings, the bombings and the murder just keep on happening.
America is by far the biggest market for drugs in the world. Therefore, it is the American drug consumer that is financing the drug related terror that reigns in these drug producing countries. Because this business is being financed by Americans, it is in my opinion, Americas responsibility to do something about it and the so called war on drugs is clearly not the answer. The war on drugs has not worked, is not working and shows no signs that it will ever work. By making drugs legal and relatively cheap, the drug trafficking profits will dry up and the cartels and mafias will no longer have a reason to exist.
The billions of dollars that the United States is spending on its war on drugs could be redirected to social programs to help people kick their drug habits and on programs to help steer children away from trying drugs in the first place. Think of all the violent deaths that could be prevented not only in the United States but also in all of the drug producing countries by putting the drug traffickers out of business. As for the argument that drug use will increase if the are legalized, I'm not buying it. The preponderance of evidence is that this has not been the case in Holland or Portugal.
So is the U. S. drug policy worth anything? Not from where I'm standing.
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