American
voters in “flaky” States are viewing the failed drug prohibition like the
Prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933. The passage of the Prohibition Act
(18th Amendment) resulted in a windfall opportunity for organized
crime to provide alcohol on the black market. Citizens also continued to
distill their own alcohol and sell it locally.
Alcohol
had been widely used in the US from its beginning. It was produced by US
farmers since the 1600s. Patent medicines were mostly alcohol. Our drinking water wasn’t reliably clean in
cities until we began to disinfect it in 1908. Water treatment and chlorination
plants were built across the US over the next 2 decades and typhoid fever was
brought under control.
The US
and Mexico share a problem and that is Drug Cartels. In Mexico, drug cartels pose an existential
threat. Drug money provides cash to these cartels to bribe local officials and
maintain an army of killers. Public officials who pursue reforms are opposed
and assassinated. In the US, drug cartels are our major source of crime and
addiction. There is a clear path for the US and Mexican government to partner
to eradicate the drug cartels. The question is what will actually work.
Drug
addiction still plagues the US for about 10% of the population. It is difficult
and expensive to treat and lapses are common. But the use of medical marijuana
is spreading to many States. They question now is whether or not to remove
marijuana from the illegal drug list completely. But more potent marijuana is
being developed.
The US is
unique in its insistence on personal freedom and must approach issues like
addiction mitigation seriously. We love to have productive people in the US and
many of the people we like are obsessive/compulsive. They are productive, fast,
driven and prone to addictions.
Our
observations of marijuana users suggests that they are destroying their brain
cells. It’s easy to spot when their school grades drop. Later clues occur when they are evicted from
their apartments or have their automobiles repossessed.
There are
no easy answers. If we legalize
marijuana, the drug cartels will push the harder drugs. If we leave US citizens to their own devices,
many of them will suffer the consequences.
The
question that needs to be answered is about responsibility. Are individuals
responsible for their actions or is the government responsible. I would say that the individual is
responsible. The government is responsible for roads, bridges, water treatment,
sanitary sewers and protecting our freedom. They are not responsible for our
mistakes. We are responsible. Our parents are also responsible to warn us to
avoid drug addiction. Beyond that, the families own their members to the extent
they can.
The
government does have a responsibility to keep the peace and drug cartels are
criminal enterprises. If the US and Mexico can stop drug importation to the US,
Mexico will solve its problem, but US based drug cartels could spring up. The
US needs to control the border to control immigration, so it looks like the
wall will happen. I expect that marijuana use may be left to the States, but
harder drugs will remain illegal. We need to see how this plays out.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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