The War on Drugs – #37

Are there any of my followers that think that the war on drugs is a big failure?  Absolutely nothing the government does is ever going to stop the use of what are now “illegal” drugs.  When the United States put alcohol as illegal, did that stop people from drinking?  No, it just caused the government to spend more money than it needed to enforcing the law.  That is kind of the same thing that is happening with drugs, I think.

First off, only the people that really want to use drugs are going to.  Kinda like right now.  Sure, there may be a little spike in the number of people doing drugs, or who give it a try, because it won’t be illegal anymore.  But the matter of fact is that ONLY those who WANT to use drugs will.  Of course I would still keep it illegal if someone was forced to use drugs.

Think of all the money that has been spent on drugs.  This post from the White House said that the budget to “reduce drug use and its consequences in the United States” for 2013 was $25.6 Billion. And that was an increase of 1.2% over 2012.  Compare that to the 2014/15 budget of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District of $83 Million.  You could fund the SMMUSD 308.5 times with the drug budget.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics there were a total of 98,817 public schools in the U.S. during the 2009-2010 school year.  Divide the drug budget up between all those schools and each could have gotten an extra $260,000.  Don’t you think that your school is worth an extra quarter million a year?  Use that money to combat the drug war at the education level.

Even then I think that the education that kids receive is working.  I dare you to walk up to any kid from like age eight and up and ask them if drugs are bad and they are going to say yes.  So you would really have to get to the root of what causes people to want to do drugs in the first place.  For the already wealthy people who just want to get the high feeling there is nothing that we can do for them.  They do it for the rush and nothing more.  But how about the people who are taking the drugs to make their life feel better than they think it is treating them.  Maybe they are doing drugs to feel better about being homeless.  Maybe they turned to drugs because they lost their job.

Have you ever found it weird that the people who have the most issues with drugs are the ones who can’t afford them?  These are the people who end up stealing for the money.  Or murder to get the drugs.  Yes, these kinds of things are not going to go away if we all of a sudden make drugs legal.  Stealing and murder are still going to be WAY illegal.

But what if we used that $260,000 per school and used it to house the homeless, feed the hungry, help the unemployed get a job.  Don’t you think that that would drive down the need and want of taking drugs?  Wouldn’t that help drive down the crime rate due to drug use?  Call me crazy but I think it would.

Now here is the argument that I hear coming from the “right”.  “That is Socialism”.  Well, fuck yea it is!!!  We should be helping our society when they are down.  Nobody WANTS to be homeless.  Nobody WANTS to be unemployed.  And nobody WANTS to be on food stamps.  At least none of the homeless, unemployed, and receiving food assistance that I know of do.  Everybody wants to have a nice house, good job, and food on the table.  Is that such a bad thing?

And here is the really dicked up thing about the “right”.  They don’t want to have social services.  Yet they LOVE their Bible. Here is a great quote that I just Googled.  This is from Matthew 25:35-40

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 

Now I dare you to tell me that the Bible itself doesn’t promote a social services system!

The way of fighting the drug war with laws, jail, guns, murder, and the wasteful spending of money, just isn’t working.  And as they say, if you keep trying to get a different result with the same action you’re not going to get very far.  So let’s try something new.  Let’s end the war on drugs and use the money to defeat the reason that people use the drugs in the first place.

There are 16 public schools in the SMMUSD.  That would bring our share to $4,160,000.  Whew!  How about West Hollywood: Four schools for $1,040,000.  That’s a lot of money, per year, for our little area.  Think of all the good that would do.

Love to you all as always!!

~Ryan

[Originally Posted 1/28/15]