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The War on Drugs Update
Nathan Tabor | The Conservative Voice | January 22, 2006

Each night, network news programs in America turn their focus on the war in Iraq. Yet, routinely, the national news media ignore another war that’s been going on now for more than 30 years—the war on drugs.

By all indications, we continue to lose this hidden war. And frankly, there are a number of people in the news media and in Hollywood who are actually rooting for the other side. They’re the individuals who believe that there is no danger in a 13-year-old smoking pot when he should be in school…a twenty-eight-year-old mother smoking crack…or a 60-year-old ex-hippie who’s addicted to heroin.

According to the federal government’s household survey on drug use, which is conducted each year, 12.7 million people have used some kind of illegal drug in the last month. As many as 30 to 40 million people have used an illegal drug within the past year. Of those who use drugs at least monthly, 10 million are assumed to be “casual” users, while 2.7 million are addicts. But who’s to say that today’s casual user won’t become tomorrow’s addict? And can’t even casual drug use destroy marriages, decimate families, and ruin lives?

In 1996, the national drug war suffered a serious setback when 56 percent of California voters cast ballots in favor of legalizing the growing and use of marijuana for so-called “medical purposes.” This is all part of an overall strategy to make drug use more acceptable to the general public.

A shocking report by the Government Accountability Office released just last month showed quite clearly the scope of the problem. The report indicated that more than 50 government agencies are working on trying to combat illegal drug use in the U.S., yet they are having little effect on the overall production and consumption of illegal drugs.

Those who are looking to the federal government to single-handedly solve the problem of illegal drug use have to be demoralized at this point. The fact is, after three decades, the feds are no closer to eradicating narcotics use than they were at the beginning. If we truly care about protecting our children from the scourge of drug abuse, we need to act locally.

It all begins with the family. Believe it or not, children do listen to what their parents have to say—and they follow their parents’ example. Any parent who uses illegal drugs is doing a disservice to his or her children. If children receive a strong anti-drug message at home, they are far less likely to experiment once they leave home. Also, a strong, two-parent family who regularly goes to church may be the best defense against drug abuse. Children turn to drugs as an escape in order to avoid the troubles in their lives. They are far better able to cope when they have both a Mom and a Dad around whom they can depend on.

Churches can also be a powerful weapon in the war on drugs. It has been shown that people of faith are less likely to turn to drugs in an effort to fulfill their inner-longings. By offering hope—not only to the child who’s never tested drugs but also to the addict who’s trying to kick the habit, churches can help to rescue our culture from a drugged-out fate.

As a last line of defense, we should look to the schools in our communities—both public and private. They have a vested interest in keeping their student body drug-free. Schools must re-double their drug education efforts. After all, the media routinely spout a pro-drug line—it is up to teachers and principals to counteract the myths with the truth. We can beat drugs—but we have to do it house-by-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood. We cannot afford to lose another generation to the traumatic cycle of drugs and violence.

Copyright © 2006 by Nathan Tabor

Nathan Tabor is a conservative political activist based in Kernersville, North Carolina. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in public policy. He is a contributing editor at www.theconservativevoice.com and his 60 second commentaries are heard on over 250 stations daily. Visit www.aconservativemoment.com to hear them. You can contact him at Nathan@nathantabor.com

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replica

They make it sound like medicinal use is a devious tap into the public's well-being by the people for it.

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Luda

When i went to a private, catholic high school the kids were far more into drugs than those that went to public schools. They had money to blow on whatever they wanted, so they would just go buy drugs [often times, hard drugs like crack and meth]

MrIMStoned

We are the individuals who believe that there is plenty of danger in a 13-year-old not knowing the facts, pros and cons of marijuana use or any drug really... a 28-year-old mother smoking crack because when she first started using drugs all she ever heard from teachers, police and politicians were lies... or a 60-year-old ex-hippie who's addicted to heroin and contracts AIDS because there are no safe injection clinics.

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"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"

Buzzby

In the logic business, we call this the argumentum ad hominem fallacy. The person presenting an argument is attacked instead of the argument itself. Most people who are against prohibition do not favor indiscriminate drug use nor do they believe that drug use is problem-free. They simply recognize that prohibition doesn't stop people from obtaining and using drugs, and that prohibition causes far more problems than it solves.


It's unlikely, but I suppose it might on occasion. So could a lot of things that are perfectly legal. It's certainly not a justification for prohibition.


America spends 16% of its Gross Domestic Product on health care. I think it would be safe to say that drug use is already quite acceptable to the general public. Half the ads on television are for pills to "cure" one disease or another. Other than the people on the federal payroll and some Christian Right/Neocon ideologues, everyone in the world knows that cannabis has important medical uses.


Prohibition is impossible without turning what is supposed to be a free society into a total police state. This was clearly demonstrated in the 1920s. Tighter controls lead to higher black market prices which lead to more people being interested in getting into the business. As long as there are huge profits to be made, someone will always be there to replace anyone busted for dealing. To the high-level suppliers, the occasional interdiction/seizure somewhere in the supply chain is simply a cost of doing business. When a product that costs $1 to produce has a street price of $1,000, there will always be people ready to take up the "burden".

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reggie_the_dog

please keep pot illegal for about 2 more years, by that time i will have grown and sold enough to buy my first house......

just kidding, if you legalize i will open a coffeshop and sell my wares legally, if not, the black market is the way to go;

lilgrasshoppah

The thing that I am fast learning about bureaucracy is, it exists to exist. There wasn't a bureaucrat born who desires forward progress. "To do less with more" is their undying credo. It's not shocking to learn that neither the ONDCP, nor the DEA, nor the 48 other agencies, are nothing but a bunch of incompetent wastrels. It's not even surprising.

We live in a society that honestly believes "Paxil is my antidrug". That level of hypocrisy can't stand. My only hope is that, in dying, prohibition doesn't take the rest of us down with it!

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