StopTheDrugWar.Org Advocate

I should put in a plug for the non-profit I'm now working for. It's called StoptheDrugWar.org and the name is changing from DRC.net.

It's a very cool group, and the offices are a serious activist shop, which I love. It's also located on this strip with cool activist groups and international organizations. It's part of a "human rights" row.

I'll have to publicize what the mission and beliefs are, of the group. They've been gaining some international support and readership, which is great. I'll post the most recent newsletter in my next blog, for an idea.

They're a hardworking bunch. I was sort of coming from the side of medicinal marijuana/drug advocacy, but they go farther than that, and there are some very good arguments for it. If drugs were legalized, the justice system would be freed from the burden of having to cop for this issue. Drug crimes with drug lords wouldn't exist because if drugs were legal and taxed, it would put the industry into other hands. Where have all the bootleggers gone, from the prohibition? (hmm...I DO know one or two ended up in the business anyway, right? Jim Beam or something? but in general...).

Also, if drugs are getting across the border, how easy is it to smuggle a bomb across the border? By taking drug searches off of the agenda, it frees the U.S. to focus their time and energy on searches for more harmful things.

And judges wouldn't have to send people to prison for petty drug crime, and hit people when they're low already. It would reduce the burden on the justice system, of having to cop, charge, prosecute, and judge drug possession matters.

Addiction should be dealt with medically, not in the criminal justice system.

It's not the most pressing issue of the day, but actually, this one issue, if changed, could have a huge and dramatic impact on several things including homeland security, civil rights, better access to healthcare and painkillers without stigma, monies for addiction and rehab instead of beds in jail, and it would free scientists up to do better research and take it out of the hands of the pharm. Not to mention freeing up the justice system, and giving overworked public defenders something else to focus their attentions on. With proper education, it could decrease crime and personal safety and risks involved could be examined with education too.

Basically, getting it out of the back alleys could be a good thing for the U.S. There are some big businesses which would lose profits, but the overall impact would not only be positive, it could boost the economy.

Abstinence is the only way to eliminate total risk for contracting STDs, as is true when abstaining from drug use. However, education on the risks would be a help, not a hindrance; if, and when you do choose to use, use wisdom.

Another good point, is that the drug wars are almost always historically rooted in racial prejudice. Opium was brought in by Chinese immigrants and fear of the strange "opium den" made the news. Cocaine and the black man is going to be emboldened to go after the white woman (newspaper articles with such headlines). Then it was marijuana brought in by Mexican immigrants (whom, I would argue, are still marginalized in society). And while drug use is even across all social strata, those who are tracked down, caught, and punished, are typically the poor and the minorities, who are disadvantaged in getting decent help for their case and then land in prison in disparate numbers.