LIES, DRUGS, AND THE USA

The drug war is now, and has always been, based upon lies. Hamilton Wright
testified before Congress several times leading up to the Harrison
Narcotics Act of 1914, which would become the first restriction placed on
drugs, mainly cocaine and opium, by the federal government. Oftentimes,
Wright would tinge his testimony with racist comments such as "Cocaine is
often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes." The next
"great" drug warrior after Wright was a man named Harry J. Anslinger.
Anslinger had been employed by the federal Prohibition Unit during
Prohibition (which worked so very well), but was transferred to the
Narcotics Division before the repeal. By July of 1930 Anslinger was the
head of the all new Federal Bureau of Narcotics; he would hold this
position until 1960. When Anslinger was pressed for numbers he would simply
make them up. Unless you can believe that he had someway of knowing that
there were exactly 9,458 "addicts" in New York. Wright and Anslinger built
the drug war that we know and love from the ground up on lies.

We should not fool ourselves into believing that things have changed;
politicians still lie with every word they speak, and most of us have
probably come to expect it. Which brings me to my real point: the ads that
were purchased by the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the
Superbowl are also egregious lies. I will not say that most drug
traffickers are not unsavory and violent people, but most of them are not
global terrorists.

Also, going back to that "Axis of Evil" from my last article, the
terrorists our government is after are in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (or
possibly still lingering in Afghanistan) so I will disregard all others as
our president so thoughtfully did. The most commonly used illicit drug in
America is marijuana.

Almost all marijuana consumed in America is either grown here at home, in
Mexico, or in Canada. As far as I am aware these countries are not major
threats to us. The same story holds true for methamphetamines except that
Canada is not a lead producer.

And when it comes to LSD, almost all of it is made right here in the good
ol' U.S. of A. (buy American).

Ecstasy is another commonly used drug, especially among college students,
and it is almost all manufactured in the Netherlands which is also fairly
non-threatening. The only two other big drugs I haven't covered are cocaine
and opium or opium-related products like heroin.

Almost all cocaine comes from the Andean region of South America, Colombia
and Bolivia in particular. The FARC of Colombia is according to our
government the largest terrorist group in the world, by sheer number of
members.

Much of the money from Colombian cocaine fills the coffers of the FARC. The
FARC is a very vicious group, but is not a plausible threat to U.S.
security. They are a rebel army bent on overthrowing the Colombian
government and installing a new Marxist one, and as of right now have no
long term goals of destroying America. Finally, only opium is left. It is
true that Afghanistan was, and still is, the leading producer of opium in
the world, but it would be foolish to believe that the Taliban or Osama bin
Laden had a hand in the production of this drug. It was our "ally" the
Northern Alliance who was the primary protector of Afghani opium.

So, it turns out that if someone buys opium they're really..supporting our
allies!? Much like the lies that the drug war was based on, this new line
of propaganda is centered around political convenience rather than honesty.