One thing about being on the right in politics is that sometimes you are actually in the wrong. This seems to be particularly the case with the Trump administration, which seems to be determined to follow policies which are doomed to failure from the start, or are merely revivals of previously failed US social policies.
The latest of these is that apparently 'The Donalds' attorney general Jeff Sessions intends to revive the much discredited 'War on Drugs' ...
.... A policy which was initiated by President Nixon way back in 1971. This 'war' has not done one iota of good as regards the US consumption of drugs, and the price or purity of the street products available, and everything to create a criminalised class of low level non violent offenders (mostly black males), in the US.
Sentences of up to twenty years for merely street dealing small amounts of dope to individuals, creates a disproportionate criminal system response, and doesn't affect the major suppliers and distributors. Effectively a generation or two of males in some communities have become long-term criminals, and basically unable to work, even if they have reformed.
Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people in prison in the US for drug offences increased more than 10-fold, from 40,900 to 469,545, and the average sentence more than tripled. Yet most are low level couriers or street distributors and not the drug barons it was hoped to snare.
We have pointed out before the error of the US policy (which is echoed in many western countries), on a number of occasions, because until the US government accepts that the policy has failed and a new approach is required, we are doomed to keep fighting a losing battle, with all the consequences that entails.
Rather like Hitler's troops after 1944 (and we all know how that ended for Germany), we have lost the war, but are still fighting all the battles.
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| The War On Drugs Doomed To Defeat? |
The latest of these is that apparently 'The Donalds' attorney general Jeff Sessions intends to revive the much discredited 'War on Drugs' ...
.... A policy which was initiated by President Nixon way back in 1971. This 'war' has not done one iota of good as regards the US consumption of drugs, and the price or purity of the street products available, and everything to create a criminalised class of low level non violent offenders (mostly black males), in the US.
Sentences of up to twenty years for merely street dealing small amounts of dope to individuals, creates a disproportionate criminal system response, and doesn't affect the major suppliers and distributors. Effectively a generation or two of males in some communities have become long-term criminals, and basically unable to work, even if they have reformed.
Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people in prison in the US for drug offences increased more than 10-fold, from 40,900 to 469,545, and the average sentence more than tripled. Yet most are low level couriers or street distributors and not the drug barons it was hoped to snare.
We have pointed out before the error of the US policy (which is echoed in many western countries), on a number of occasions, because until the US government accepts that the policy has failed and a new approach is required, we are doomed to keep fighting a losing battle, with all the consequences that entails.
Rather like Hitler's troops after 1944 (and we all know how that ended for Germany), we have lost the war, but are still fighting all the battles.
Just as it was accepted that Donald's election was democratic, governments should accept that the people's choice is to consume illegal drugs. They should be legalised so that they're content can be regulated, the profits taxed and the criminals taken out of the loop. Whatever the arguments, legalisation can't be as bad as criminalisation which as you point out has been massively counter productive.
ReplyDeleteIt would be cheaper and could be taxed (Like cigarettes ans Alcohol) as well ... so raising vast revenues for the state instead of criminals.
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