COP Columns

The War On Drugs

Is There One?

What, when you get down to it, do we do about drugs? For decades we have been grinding away at the dope trade, spending hugely, putting appalling numbers of users and dealers in prison, increasing the powers of the federal police. What have we gotten for it?

Not much. Your daughters, at age fifteen, unless they are in iron lungs, can score in a day or two any drug you have ever heard of, and lots you haven't, unless you misspent your youth extravagantly. Because of the drug laws, horrendous amounts of money go to drug lords in Columbia who otherwise couldn't make a living. What to do?

The following is a letter from a friend of mine, a former military guy with lots of combat time in Asia, who lives in a large city among the literati, of which he is one, when he feels like it. Think about it.

"Fred: My take on the WOD [War On Drugs] is that it's actually a major cause of the drug epidemic. It keeps the price up, provides tons of free advertising, and provides an incentive to engage in the business and get rich or, on a smaller scale, to make a living, or on a still smaller scale, to pay for your own [drugs]. When the WOD started, the drug problem in this country consisted of some jazz bands and Eugene O'Neill's mother.

"It's not the drugs that are the problem. If every skell in America were zoned out, looking at his shoes, or even just OD'd in the morgue, because the stuff was readily available at cost, they might be worthless, or even a welfare drag on the society, but they would not be (a) burgling your apartment, (b) mugging you on the street, or (c) selling the stuff on the street about two blocks from a Middle School. One thing junkies are not is enterprising, about anything except scoring some more junk.

"I will bet anybody, journalist, policeman, drug czar, world's foremost authority, that I can take anyone who is addicted, or psychologically addicted (that means they like the stuff), to any drug in wide distribution today and drop him in any populated location anywhere in this country and he can score before nightfall.

"So, other than as a means to enlarge their budgets and personnel, what do these policemen propose to do that does not involve the wholesale abandonment of the Bill of Rights?

"It is my belief that it is everybody's business if somebody poses a hazard on the highway or in the workplace, but what they do for fun in the privacy of their own homes is nobody's business unless it poses a hazard to the lives of minor children. My point is that if drugs cause you to perform crimes against persons or property, you are responsible. If you are all [drugged] up at the time, that is no excuse, and may be an aggravating factor.

"But if you get all [drugged] up at home, and spend a pleasant evening examining the wallpaper while you listen to punk rock or rap, then that should be punishment enough. If your life is so bad that your only remedy is to turn yourself into a drooling fool, what punishment will stay you? But in any case it's nobody else's business.

"I think kids are interested in drugs because a crime makes them cool. I've had friends who were teachers report that kids in Middle School sit around reading DARE pamphlets, figuring out which drugs they wanted to try when they got old enough to score. [My own daughters say exactly this. They had barely heard of drugs, when this nice cop came and told them about all the varieties out there, and what they looked like, and what the effects were -- whereupon, who would have thought it, kids became interested. Fred]

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You gotta be careful with this stuff. Your memory is a bit askew. I'm a social toker, but my total expenditure on cocaine for my entire lifetime is $10.00. [My] First Law of Economics is Never Buy Cocaine. I am quite willing to snort up all the free coke anybody wants to give me, although that has not happened for fifteen years. That's because all my cokehead friends have cleaned up and become respectable. All it takes is having your life fall apart five or six times and people sort of go...hmmmm, maybe this isn't such a good idea."

Worth thinking about.

Buy Fred's New Collection of Sedition and Outrage! Curmudgeing Through Paradise What the critics are saying "Despicable. Without redeeming features": New York Preview of Books "Fred be discriminate!": Al Sharpton "Fred--that ugh! man--is the ideological equivalent of the Hillside Strangler": The American Feminist "Fred deserves his own entry in the DSM V": Psychology Today Note: If emailing, do not remove the slashes that appear in the subject line as otherwise, to avoid spam, your email will be heartlessly auto-deleted. Other Note: I try to read all letters, but simply cannot respond to hundreds of emails. Neither rudeness nor delusional self-importance is involved. Just can't do it. My apologies. Web FOE See? You are not alone. Which may or may not be a good thing. At any rate, there are other twisted, brain-fried wackos out there who have too much time on their hands and read this stuff, probably while cleaning their guns. But don't worry. This site wraps its IP packets in plain brown envelopes marked "Kinky Books" so your neighbors won't know. Anyway, to the extent that counters mean any thing, which isn't much of an extent, this sucker gives the number of columns read, not counting subscribers, since Monday, October 8, 2002. Whoopee-do. More or less. Nekkid in Austin Buy Fred's new reprehensible book, Nekkid In Austin! Barnes and Noble has the beast. Another collection of outrages, irresponsible ravings, and curmudgeonry from Fred On Everything and some innocent magazines that foolishly published him. Put Fred Reed in the search at thingy at B&N and the book will pop up like mushrooms on a decaying stump. Tell everyone you came to the site by mistake while searching for articles on cannibalism. Your childhood made you do it. We're all victims nowadays. The Great Possum-Squashing and Beer Storm of 1962 Stock up. Christmas will eventually come again, if it isn't outlawed. Possum-Squashing is a better present than an ugly tie. At least as good anyway. Terms of Use | | About Fred | Subscribe | Unsubscribe ©Fred Reed www.FredOnEverything.net Site designed by Emily Wolfer edesign@healthyspiritllc.com