How To Win The War On Drugs

I'd like to take a page out of the Democrat playbook and suggest a means by which we can win the war on drugs and improve life in the United States - let's just quit. I'm not be facetious, I couldn't be more sincere. With all the money our vaunted Congress is getting ready to burn with their "earmarks", I can do a lot better things with some of that money than Congress can. Here's a quote from Bob Novak's column of this date:

"When the Defense authorization bill came up last week, Coburn prepared amendments to eliminate the Nelson earmark and the most notorious earmark now pending in Congress: Rep. John Murtha's proposed $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in his Pennsylvania district. Reid's game plan to satisfy anti-war activists with an all-night debate averted debate for now on these two earmarks."

The all night theatrics are not even worthy of further comment - let's focus on the $23 million for that "National Drug Intelligence Center". There are times when I wonder what Murtha is smoking, because $23 million for this center, located in his own district, is an idea only a person who is high could come up with.

If I could convince Congress to give me the $23 million, here's what I'd accomplish:

1.) Reduce violent crime by over 25%
2.) Increase high school graduation rates
3.) Eliminate the national debt within 3 years
4.) Reduce the number of Americans in jail
5.) Increase security on our borders

How would I accomplish all of this - make marijuana (that's a starting point) legal and let the government control the sales. Let's take a look at what I said I'd accomplish:

Reduce Violent Crime & The Number of Americans In Jail

You don't need to be a research scientist to figure out that much of our violent crime is drug related: either under the influence of, trying to get money to purchase drugs, sales/gang related violence, and you don't have to be a genius to figure out that our courts spend the vast majority of their time dealing with non-violent drug related issues, such as possession. Our jails are over-crowded with people convicted of victim-less crimes; people who would be considered average Americans - your neighbors.

We continue to be a nation that refuses to learn from history. The goody-two-shoes progressives (great-grandparents of today's liberals) who initiated Prohibition learned that Americans will ignore a stupid law passed by a vocal minority, and Americans are saying the same thing about pot today. From lawyers (not enough of them smoke it) to musicians (way too many of them smoke it) and all walks of life in between, American society rolls along with millions of closet potheads.

Increase High School Graduation Rates

Taken at face value, this category appears to indicate that I've been smoking something a lot stronger than pot. How in the world would making reefer legal increase high school graduation rates? I contend that by taking away the primary source of substantial income for younger people, rural as well as inner-city, the option of a high school education takes on much greater significance. One of the primary purposes for gang activity is removed, so we also reduce violence. As long as there are still drugs that can only be obtained illegally, the mobsters of today will continue to provide the product. If the government controls and taxes the product, we remove the allure of easy money, and we can also assure the quality of the product and reduce deaths attributed to drugs tainted with other substances.

Eliminate the National Debt Within 3 Years

I figure it would be closer to a year and a half, but I wanted some wiggle room (don't we all). Is there any doubt in any one's mind that once the government becomes involved in the control of anything, 3 things are bound to happen:

1.) Unintended levels of bureaucracy will develop - employing thousands who will gain government benefits the rest of us can only dream about . . .

2.) Liberals will find a way to tax the hell out of it in order to make sure that whatever is being controlled is readily available to those who can't afford it . . .

3.) Conservatives will find a way to tax the hell out of it in order to reduce debt and buy new toys to kick some terrorist-ass . . .

Increase Security on our Borders

With the money we've saved from our "War on Drugs", we'll have all we need to place Border Patrol officers every 10 feet along the entire border. One of the nicer, unintended consequences of this would be to take billions of dollars out of the pockets of Mexican drug lords. If we grow our own, they'll have to sell elsewhere and stop making our Southern Border a nightmare for Border Guards.

Although there is a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" in this piece, there is certainly a lot more that should be given some serious thought. From Nixon to Bush II, from "Just Say No" to "Hugs Are Better Than Drugs", you would have a difficult time finding other efforts where we've spent so much money for so little a result.

If there's one thing about the nature of mankind that has remained constant since the Egyptians first began brewing beer, and prior to that I'm sure, it's that we enjoy an occasional diversion from the humdrum of everyday life and the sorrows that it brings. We all use crutches; Budweiser or Buddha, God or ganja, we're only little specks of animated dust trying to get by until we become inanimate.

One other quick quote from Mr. Novak's column:

"Reid, the soft-spoken trial lawyer from Searchlight, Nev., in his tumultuous six and one-half months as majority leader has tended to suppress free expression in the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Deliberative Body. He last week cut off an attempt to respond to him by Sen. Arlen Specter, the veteran moderate Republican, in an abrupt way that I had not witnessed in a half-century of Senate-watching. Neither had Specter. When Specter finally got the Senate floor, he declared: 'Nothing is done here until the majority leader decides to exercise his power to keep the Senate in all night on a meaningless, insulting session. . . . Last night's performance made us the laughingstock of the world.' "

In my humble opinion, if we packed a few bongs and made the Senators all sit around, get high, eat twinkies and talk politics, we'd get about the same amount of work out of them, but it would be a lot more entertaining.

I guess it's just that libertarian streak in me, combined with an innate desire to swim against the tide, that allows me the hutzpah to propose this - or maybe I'm just sick of seeing so many people's lives disrupted because they smoke vegetation instead of eating it - unless you know Alice B. Toklas.