Still losing by land, air, and sea.
June 17, 2011 will mark the 40th anniversary of an important D-Day. No, not the kind you might imagine, like the other D-Day held earlier in the month that commemorates honor and sacrifice and commitment and an inarguable ideal, firmly resting on moral high-ground. No, this D-Day marks an embarrassment of sorts, of a day where 40 years ago, our president declared war on an unlikely enemy, an enemy that went by nicknames like Purple Kush, Herijuana, Maui-Wowie, Blow, Nose Candy and China White. No, humans were as yet un-named. This enemy was a devilish brigade of substances, clearly designed to lead people to Satan, communism, fast food and unfettered sex. This enemy wasn’t like alcohol which is still revered as a patriotic substance of celebration, no this enemy, was dark and psychedelic and anti-establishment and sexy and un-Christian. It is well documented that Jesus drank wine with his crew but we find no biblical reference to him passing a spliff, to those ornery Samaritans or exotic dancers who he sometimes hung out with.
Oddly, 40 years after Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, we still aren’t sure who the enemy is or was. This is problematic in any war. One thing can be said with certainty: if the enemy is indeed an innocuous substance, we should have been able to outsmart it. Our war-room think-tanks with full-bird Colonels and CIA operatives and Brookings institute PHD’s could surly have out-maneuvered an enemy that on a given day disguised itself as a bag-full of Quaaludes. Therein lies the problem; either the sweet-tasting, resin-laced, goo, smoked by the last three presidents is more cunning than us, or we’ve miss-identified it as a modern-day Wehrmacht. Indeed, who is the enemy?
Did the War End Two Years Ago?
According to White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, the war on drugs ended two years ago. This must be comforting to the millions of men and women incarcerated for siding with the enemy and who are anxiously awaiting an official declaration of truce. Don’t prisoners get released when wars end? According to Norm Stamper, former chief of police in Seattle and a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP): “when President Nixon declared the ‘drug war’ in 1971, the United States arrested fewer than half a million people. Today, that number has skyrocketed to almost two million drug-arrests a year. We jail more of our own citizens than any other country in world, including those run by the worst dictators and totalitarian regimes. Is this is how President Obama thinks we can “win the future?” Mr. Stamper goes on to state: “since President Nixon declared ‘war on drugs’ four decades ago, this failed policy has led to a trillion dollars spent and countless lives lost. Yet drugs today are more available than ever. President Obama’s drug officials keep saying they’ve ended the ‘drug war.’ But our report shows that’s just not true, and we’ll be hand-delivering a copy to the drug czar in hopes he’ll be convinced to actually end this war, or at least stop saying he already has.”
A Global Commission’s Ugly Conclusion
Recently, a global commission composed of former world leaders and dignitaries concluded in a 24-page report that the war on drugs has been a failure. The 19 member panel included former U.N. General Kofi Annan, Colombia President Cesar Gavila (1990-1994), former secretary of State George P. Shultz and Billionaire Richard Branson. Had Winston Churchill been on the panel, he might have taken it a step further. He might have concluded:“We have lost on the land, the sea, and in the air; where the enemy has met us, we have gotten our butts handed to us on a silver platter of Crystal Meth.” Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske labeled the report misguided.
So this June 17, hang your flag on the front porch or in the window, or run it up the flagpole. We’re still at war, sort of; we’re just not sure who we’re fighting, how much it’s costing or how much longer it will take. Scary.
