Getting inebriated is an intentional human behavior — it is not a mistake or an accident. Neither is it a mental health crisis. It is, in fact, perfectly normal human behavior well within the range of good mental health. Just like the drugs themselves, it is a question of degree (or percentage) of usage and effect.
Deeply ingrained in the desired effects of drug use is another perfectly normal human behavior: Moderation. In fact, moderation is the largest component of drug use behavior. It represents the behavior of up to 85-95% of all human drug use (…with one glaring exception – cigarettes, which run roughly at a 98-100% addiction rate).
So what is the purpose of drug laws that scoop up the huge body of moderate drug users and throws them into the closed circle of the criminal justice system?
You guessed it: money and power.
Throwing that many moderate users in jail is not meant to protect the health, safety and welfare of our community. And, neither is the criminal system really interested in saving us from ourselves. A corporate personhood cannot line his pockets with just junking the junkies. It is those huge numbers of moderate, responsible, hard working drug users that keep the criminal justice system salivating.
Year by year, hand over fist, the money rolls-in to the tune of billions of dollars. You can’t make that kind of money just by locking up the drug addicts. That’s simply not fiscally responsible. Who the hell would invest in the criminal justice industrial complex if it only locked up a few addicts? And forget about making money by locking up the dealers. We all know that’s a laugh.
So what is the purpose of the marketplace of illegalization? The word “legalization” is a code word that is used by much of the media and proponents in the corporately-inspired criminal justice system to keep adult personal drug use illegal. Legalization is meant to be inflammatory. It is not used to describe an actual policy.
By selecting cigarettes and alcohol as the allowable legal drugs, corporate influence is immediately obvious. The awesome wealth and power of the alcohol and tobacco industries is enhanced by the incestuous nature of their boardrooms and stockholders interbred with other corporate industries.
The one thing the tentacles of corporate power were missing is personhood. Now, thanks to the Supreme Court, the jigsaw is complete that rounds out the picture of the menacing embrace of the cruel giant octopus on our backs.
The Great American Drug War is a problem that will not go away. Not because of the drug users, but because of the longstanding agreements between corporate and political boardrooms, that sometimes are “illegal and therefore secretive, that limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, and who obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage.”
~Vidda Crochetta
The criminal justice system salivating
First published by the Reformer: http://www.reformer.com/letterstotheeditor/ci_25990705/letter-box
“Throwing that many moderate users in jail is not meant to protect the health, safety and welfare of our community. And, neither is the criminal system really interested in saving us from ourselves. A corporate personhood cannot line his pockets with just junking the junkies. It is those huge numbers of moderate, responsible, hard working drug users that keep the criminal justice system salivating.”
Money
If it is an economic interest of some to lock up drug users, perhaps the answer is to demonstrate how more money could be made if they did things differently.
For example, that’s a lot of potential customers for other products and services that are being prevented from spending by being incarcerated. That’s lost cable bills and phone contracts, a reduction in cars and houses bought, and so on.
The greedy and powerful will pavlovian respond to the wiff of new potential profits.
Or not. Maybe they like things the way they are, and the profits really are good. The for-profit prison system loves the free labor for their in-prison workhouses. It’s hard to be slavery, a good capitalist might think.
One thing that has changed over the years is the speed at which justice is dealt out. Read the old papers and you’ll see that alcohol was a major problem a century ago. Someone arrested for intoxication would be taken directly to a judge and given a fine immediately, sometimes in the evening.
Do delays add to profits?
Legal collateral revenue, and so on...
The problem all along is that a narrow based of people, on both sides of the legal/illegal fence, profit from this war, whereas, the “the huge body of moderate drug users“ I refer to are the ones who are the losers.
I don’t remember reading an opinion like Chris’ before: “a lot of potential customers for other products and services that are being prevented from spending by being incarcerated. That’s lost cable bills and phone contracts, a reduction in cars and houses bought, and so on.”
If this potential collateral money from “legalizing” was to be itemized it’s likely to represent a lot of income.
The "right people"
Yeah, but…
This income is spread much too thinly. It needs to be concentrated into the pockets of the people who invest in this “war”.
Mixed bag of old wealth and new wealth
That’s a good point to consider. Either that, as you say, or build a column of wealth to match them. More likely it’s to be a mixed bag of old wealth and new wealth, including more taxes in state coffers.
"more profit in pretending that we're stopping it…"
It doesn’t happen quite as much up here, but in Florida, law enforcement was a major beneficiary.
There was money available for fast boats to track smugglers. If one was caught, which happened often in Florida, everything was confiscated and then sold at auction, so police and sheriff departments would get proceeds from the sale of luxury cars and homes, and associated toys.
It seems like the main investor is the government, which is/was us. That’s where all the money to “fight” the war comes.
Like little kids we must ask ourselves “Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”
So who would be profiting? Pharmaceutical companies want you to take chemicals rather than anything that could grow in your yard. Alcohol and tobacco companies would prefer you use their products. Private prisons would like increasing quarterly profits. Politicians enjoy payouts from all of them more than from recreational drug users.
As George Clinton says in his song Dope Dogs:
“Aided and abetted by alot of apprehension and indifference.
the bigger the headache the bigger the pill.
Take your medicine cause you gonna be ill when I tell you the deal on dope.
There’s more profit in pretending that we’re stopping it, then selling it.”
Massive shot across the bow
I saw these comments posted elsewhere who saw this published article:
Dave wrote: Boom! Excellent writing! Massive shot across the bow. Well done, and congratulations on publication! Sharing immediately on Facebook. Cheers!
Vera wrote: “As usual, Vidda hit the nail right on the head!…. He make the reader say to themselves… “That’s so right”…. It’s like he gathers all the fragments and make sense out of it all in his writing.. and he turns on the light of understanding in the reader….”
I concur. Amazing article!!
Good with the Bad
In my mixed bag I get “the good, the bad and the ugly.” It’s all good to me. Thanks Dove, Dave and Vera.
Pope and Hilary Out of Touch
Last Friday it was reported to say at the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome that “the growing worldwide trend toward legalizing recreational drugs is a very, very bad idea. Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise.”
Drug addiction first and foremost is majorly a personal issue. It is usually unaccompanied by a ”real” crime. As a personal issue. It can and should be a medical issue if the user requests help.
But it certainly is NOT an “evil” issue.
Hilary is reported to say that we should proceed cautiously on experimenting with marijuana legalization.
I’ve got news for Hilary: Washington and Colorado are beyond “experimenting.” It IS legal in those states, and fairly successfully so.