DIVEST FROM VIOLENCE BY DIVESTING FROM DRUGS

The Student Government Association (SGA) will soon have the
opportunity to investigate new initiatives as it swears in Ngozi
Mbawuike as its next president in early April. If events continue as
they have since we left for spring break, the SGA will continue the
consideration of a motion that seeks to have the University of
Massachusetts endowment become divested from companies that provide
war material for the Israel Defense Forces.

As students, this brings us to the point where we need to consider
another timely divestment initiative. It is imperative that we
urgently divest from the purchase of illegal drugs.

The purchase and use of drugs by students on campuses throughout the
United States contributes significantly to the support of drug
cartels that operate on the United States-Mexico border. According to
Alex Johnson of MSNBC - quoting statistics from the National Drug
Intelligence Center (NDIC) -these cartels control about 90 percent of
the market for cocaine, along with most of the market for marijuana,
methamphetamine and heroin.

According to the NDIC's 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment, which
is available on its website at www.usdoj.gov/ndic, drug-trafficking
organizations (DTOs), especially those originating in Mexico, are
gaining strength throughout most major American cities and are
responsible for a substantial portion of gang-related violence. The
assessment asserts that these drug-related activities are the
greatest organized crime threat in the United States.

In addition to the terror brought to American cities as a result of
the use of illegal drugs, the use of these drugs contributes to
violence among the various cartels that do their business along the
Mexican border.

Since 2008, these armed conflicts have resulted in the deaths of over
6,000 people. Young Mexicans are being initiated into these gangs and
inculcated with the values and morals that come along with gang life.
Not only are physical lives being lost, but the souls of young people
are being given over voluntarily to the enemy.

There is a strong argument that is occasionally made for drug
legalization. The case rests upon the free-market notion of supply
and demand. This is an economic principle that many of us have
studied in introductory courses on microeconomics.

The contention is made that by suppressing of the supply of illegal
drugs through law enforcement interdiction, while there
simultaneously exists a high demand for such drugs among the
populace, we only drive up the prices for illicit drugs. Thus, we can
conclude that the extraordinary profits that can be realized by
entering into the business of supplying drugs are what drive the
gangs to resort to violence.

This line of reasoning fails because the decision on what is to
constitute the law of the land, both within our local communities and
throughout our nation, is not based on economic principles alone, but
on the values, traditions and morals of our people. If these values,
traditions and morals are ordered rightly, then there is no
alternative than to assert that the law of the land comes from "on
High," and that it is the job of man to carry this out in our civil law.

Whether civil law reflects the highest values of our communities or
the proper purpose of man, it remains up to us as students to take a
strong stand on our personal divestment from the purchase and use of
illegal drugs. The French poet Paul Claudel once remarked, "Youth was
not made for pleasure, but for heroism." If we take these words to
heart and follow our conscience, then divestment should not be
difficult at all.

If we examine the situation of the young people who become ensnared
in the life of drug cartels in Mexico, gangs in U.S. cities or social
pressures in American colleges, there is one thing of which we can be
sure: This is not what their life is meant to be. To put it
succinctly, their souls are far too important to be left to such a
life, which is a life in exile from its true purpose. The use of any
drug, excepting out of genuine medical necessity, should be
identified for what it is - the handiwork of our enemy.

By continuing to purchase and use drugs, we unwittingly remain
enslaved in the service of a cruel tormentor, a tyrant who reigns
over us through our pleasures and desires. We believe that our
actions will cause little harm to others and that we are merely
exercising free choice. But, by serving this false master, we not
only continue to remain enslaved ourselves, but also work to keep our
fellow man enslaved.

By divesting from the use of our money in this way, we can instead
choose to proclaim freedom for those who are held in bondage. Let us
resolve ourselves, on this very day, to use our wealth, along with
our time and our unique talents and abilities, to pay the ransom
necessary to redeem the souls of our fellow young people who are held
in callous exile, wherever they may live in the world, and without
regard for social class or national identification.