DEA SNAKE OIL

Don't ever suggest that federal bureaucrats are not smart. Take, for
instance, the DEA, the federal agency that has the responsibility of
waging the war on drugs, a war that has obviously failed to achieve
its objective after 30 years of warfare, not to mention all the
collateral violence that the drug war has spawned.

Amidst growing discussion and debate in the mainstream media on the
libertarian idea of ending the war on drugs by legalizing drugs,
guess what the DEA is using as a way to distract people's attention
away from that solution.

Yes, you guessed it! The DEA is employing the magic word, the word
that gets everyone's knees a-knockin' - the word that causes them to
pull the duct tape out and start sealing their windows - the word
that induces them to beg the government to "temporarily" take away
their freedoms.

Yes, the DEA is saying that the drug war is necessary because of ...
(drum roll) ... terrorism!

Much like the snake-oil salesmen of old, the DEA is touring the
country with a traveling exhibit in which a post-9/11 President Bush
waving a flag is juxtaposed with an African-American woman lying in
bed next to her baby as she smokes crack cocaine. There are also
photos of the noted terrorist Osama bin Laden on the walls of the
exhibit alongside noted drug dealer Pablo Escobar.

The irony of all this is that to the extent that there are terrorists
financing the operations through drug sales, it's a direct result of
the exorbitant profits that the drug war produces, which would
disintegrate with legalization. Thus, what the DEA officials fail to
realize (or not) is that it is their own war that provides the monies
to finance the terrorists. It's just another perverse result of
another perverse federal program.

According to the Washington Post, the exhibit claims that heroin
sales supported the Taliban, while conveniently omitting not only
that the Taliban regime opposed heroin production but also that
heroin production has soared in the wake of the U.S. government's
invasion of Afghanistan to fight terrorism.

Of course, the sad part about this is that many Americans will walk
through the exhibit and never figure any of this out. They'll see the
photos of 9/11, Osama, Escobar, and drug deals and quickly draw the
conclusion that the DEA wants them to reach: "Drugs and terrorism go
together. Please keep going with the 30-year war on drugs and the
perpetual war on terrorism to protect us from both the drug dealers
and the terrorists." It will never occur to some people that it is
the U.S. government's own policies - the drug war and an
interventionist foreign policy - that have engendered both the drug
lords and the terrorist blowback against the United States.

As people fall for the obviously deceptive propaganda, the DEA
bureaucrats will cheer because they'll get to keep their budgets,
jobs, and salaries as the drug war continues. The drug lords will
cheer as well, for the same reason.