I’ve been traveling through South & Latin America, and the damage the U.S. drug laws have done to these countries and their people is shameless. The merciless drug cartels south of the border have taken over. The majority of demand for drugs comes from the United States, due to the so-called, failed war on drugs. Our jails are full of people doing hard time for drug possession and it needs to end. Watch this short video I taped in Key Largo, and I’ll look forward to your comments.
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Hi Steve,
There are times I disagree with you (unions, some Republican policies)
but I always respect your opinion because at least you thought it through
to the best of your current paradigm. The war on drugs is just a war
on the Constitution, no more – no less.
If you cared about people so much, what is worse? (A) felony=- incarceration – being raped, stabbed, killed or joining a prison gang to avoid all that and then can’t get a real job when you get out…. OR (B) You’re a druggie, in a “free” country until you decide not to be a drug user anymore. I’ll take freewill and choice”B” Alex. Not to be flippant because I did drugs in spite of ALL the laws and risked life, liberty and health , but until I wanted kids and realized this wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore – NOTHING stopped me. I was lucky most of the damage done was to myself, not others – however I never for once in my life thought or think that the laws would stop me, or anyone else for that matter. If it ain’t weed it’s alcohol which is far worse. Legalize? Decriminalize=YES.
I quit drinking and using recreational drugs in 1980. I had to do this to salvage my life. But I believe with all my heart that the war on drugs is one of the most corrupt, stupid, life threatening policies our country has ever adopted. We have TV commercials that push legal drugs with the most sophisticated sales psychology on the planet as a cure all for all kinds of problems and then wonder why young impressionable people assume that street drugs will also solve some of their problems… Our thinking on this subject is so full of contradictions as well as outright denial of the facts of the situation.
The prohibition was a disaster. It entrenched criminal organizations that still plague us. The war on drugs is the prohibition on steroids with global damage that will take decades to begin the healing process. Getting rid of the thinking behind the war on drugs can’t happen too soon.
Hey Steve–you touched a real nerve with me. People ask me all the time about the “Drug problem in Costa Rica”??? Wrong country folks–the drug problem is in the US and if you want to stop all the horrendous issues it causes from Mexico into South America you need to stop your incessant demand for cocaine and marijuana! I really think the jury needs to stay out for awhile and see how things play out now that pot is being legalized all over the place. This is an issue that will reveal it’s consequences over the long term. But I agree that if the demand is in the US then keep all the collateral damage there and that will help stop the carnage in Mexico and the transportation and violence that goes with it will at least be kept out of these countries that do not have a rampant drug culture. It is more than obvious that the US drug policy is a total failure so can decriminalization and/or legalization be any worse?? We shall see.