Letter: War on Drugs Has Failed
Gregory Devlin
February 20, 2009
The Keene Sentinel (NH)
This letter regards an editorial printed Feb. 17 on marijuana decriminalization titled, “A $100 fine?”
First, before being quashed in committee, lawmakers were negotiating for a $100 fine for possession of a quarter of an ounce or less, which would at least have tried to satisfy your complaint that the fine was too lenient (i.e., $100 for “an ounce or less”).
Second, I doubt many decriminalization advocates would be overly concerned about the actual dollar amount of what a fine might be (for an ounce or less), provided said fine be on par with those penalties of the 12 already decriminalized states in the nation — something around $300.
Yet, none of this is hardly relevant to the most disturbing aspects of the editorial itself, which alternates, complete with detractions, scant bits about the state House’s current efforts regarding decriminalization with copious passages about border violence and the drug war.
This is not only misleading on several fronts, it also smacks of a hazy kind of reasoning that makes Lou Dobbs look like Socrates.
To begin with, according to a recent Library of Congress study, no more than 50 percent of the marijuana consumed in the U.S. is imported. Yet the article attempts a near one-to-one ratio of marijuana equals violence, leaving countries like Colombia, Jamaica and Belize absent from its calculus.
But that is hardly the point either: The war on drugs is a horrendous, abject failure.
It is the war itself that is driving the crime, driving the violence, all for what — less than 10 percent interdiction?
The stranglehold and violence of the Mexican cartels now extends past civilians and border patrols to include local police, judiciary and politicians.
How bad is bad? A recent U.S. Joint Forces Command report now places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a state that could — at any time — “completely collapse.”
What kind of a security threat would that be?
As for decriminalization of marijuana itself, the preponderance of evidence asserts that said action is more than just a trend, it is a reality with a strong moral and pragmatic backbone.
Look to the rest of the developed world and how it is handled there. Look to the 12 states in this nation where it has been decriminalized, 13 where it is available as medicine. Some of these states, like New York and California, are highly populous, the result being that more than 25 percent of this nation’s citizenry no longer lives under the yoke of these, yes, “draconian” laws.
Finally, at the end of your editorial, you speak of “American drug users” paying money to people who torture and murder just so they can “secure their pleasure.”
Spare me your righteous indignation. This issue, at its profound essence, is not about pleasure — it’s about justice.
It’s about the fact that 2.25 million Americans are in jail, more than any country in the world, more than Russia, more than China, more per capita, more period.
There are people profiting off the backs of these souls, close to a third of whom are there for nonviolent drug offenses.
If you want to end the violence, end the war on drugs. | 
