Declaring War on the War on Drugs

by Jack VanNoord

On February 5, 2000 19-year old Barrington High graduate Keith Lane thinking he was taking the club drug Ecstasy, dies when the substance turns out to be something very different.  Currently, Veteran Chicago Police officer Joseph Miedzianowski and his partner stand accused of running a major cocaine and heroin ring.  November 14, a 19-year-old Elgin woman sustains gunshot wounds to the head while asleep in her apartment. Last month, Geneva police seize from the residence of Michael Buckley 700 pounds of marijuana intended for distribution. 

Admittedly, cocaine, heroine, crack, marijuana, Ecstasy are powerful substances that can ruin lives and destroy families.  But, equally tragic is that the aforementioned violence, corruption, user-turned-pusher and overdoses due to unknown quality are not a direct result of drug use itself.  Instead each of these is a byproduct of the War on Drugs.  Not only has the War on Drugs been a dismal failure, but it has spawned a host of  unintended consequences. 

It is time to acknowledge the 800-pound gorilla in the room.  The War on Drugs is a bust.

De-criminalize drugs.  Bring drug use above ground.  Expose it to the light of day.  Regulate it.  Deal with it the same way we deal with alcohol and alcohol addiction.  Most importantly, de-criminalize drugs so that we can take the industry out of the hands of criminals. 

I have two beautiful, preschool-aged daughters at home.  I pray that they never experiment with --let alone become regular users of-- mind altering substances.  I hope that I can help them successfully navigate their way through life’s many temptations.  I am confidant that I can steer them clear of alcohol and tobacco abuse.  Facts, fear, reason and parental suasions will provide a counter influence to the allure of magazine ads and low-grade peer pressure. 

But no matter how successfully I instill in my daughters a sense of right and wrong, I can’t protect them from a drive-by shooting.   

As a father, I am confident  that when it comes to influencing my daughters’ decisions, I can take on the Joe Camels of the world.  But I am not so sure about the pig-tailed user-turned-pusher sitting next to my daughter in 3rd period English --which is exactly what a black market fosters  There is a logical, economic reason why we don’t have an epidemic of 17-year-old dealers hustling cigarettes in the school yard.  

The clear-minded among us knew from the beginning that the War on Drugs was not going to have the desired effect.  How did they know that it would fail?  Because it violates the principle that it is not a legitimate function of government to tell consenting adults what they can and can not put in their body.  The violation of this principle and the failure of the War on Drugs is no coincidence.  They are inextricably linked.   

Whether it is banning books, ideas or drugs, government’s attempts to eliminate controlled substances have never been more than moderately successful and only then with a tremendous amount of violence, suppression and violations of human rights. 

Where’s the Republican and Democratic leadership on this issue?  Their silence is scandalous.  The Libertarian Party alone has had the courage to call the War on Drugs what it is: misguided, futile, a monumental waste and a war on the American people. 

Let 2001 be the year we came to our senses.  Declare the War on Drugs a failed experiment.  Let’s begin a national dialog about how to minimize drugs use without imprisoning our sons and brothers, without creating gang warfare, without surrendering a huge industry to modern-day Al Capones.

As a father of two beautiful daughter, I ask you to end the insane War on Drugs.  If doing so saves the lives of even one child, then it will have been worth it.

03-21-2001

Written by Jack VanNoord - West Dundee.