Cocaine, as Rick James proclaimed, is a hell of a drug. Unfortunately for some, its access is too great and its purity is too high. This makes the Drug Czar John Walters look bad.
Let me take this time to comment on how pointless the war on drugs is. Actually, I don't need to. I'll let the Associated Press do that for me:
And despite a record fumigation of almost 550 square miles (1,425 square kilometers) in 2005, there was 26 percent more land dedicated to production of the plant used to make cocaine. The 2006 estimates are to be released in May.
The fumigation was done as a part of Plan Columbia, a multi-billion dollar expenditure to eradicate the coca plant from Columbia, the source of cocaine in the country as well as being a cash crop in the region. As you can tell by the quote, this program has not worked in any other way than stripping locals of their funds, but I'm not arguing for them. I am arguing for the American.
Americans have been sponsoring this war against drugs since the Nixon administration when he closed down all of the nation's methadone clinics. Tax money has been poured into advertisements that have made teens do nothing more than want to try drugs (due to a previous post, I cannot explain my personal relationship to those ads for fear of being blackballed by the hater-ass American government). Additionally, Black communities are disproportionately targeted by the practices of the war on drugs. The CIA put crack into black communities but is dedicated to eradicating drug usage. The more depressing part is that all of the efforts made to stop drugs haven't worked. Drugs are easily accessible. The falling prices mean they are cheaper. And, to top off everything, the quality has gotten higher.
This all just goes to prove the following point: The whole war on drugs is a crock of shit and needs to be stopped. The money that is wasted every year on drug enforcement and imprisoning peaceful marijuana users could be used to solve many of the problems that exist in areas that have been rattled by drug use like the rural and inner city communities of America. I don't understand how they could ever think that it was a good idea, especially with regards to harmless drugs like marijuana.
|