What to do about Illegal Drugs

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 (18^th 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