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The war on drugs is a war on our youth
Fogg, of Washington, D.C,. is a chief deputy U.S. marshal. He was recently a guest speaker at Virginia Tech.
4/12/08|Roanoke Times| by Matthew Fogg


When I speak out against the war on drugs, I do so from a position of experience. I supervised a major metropolitan area Drug Enforcement Administration task force. I have tracked America's most wanted fugitives. I have participated in SWAT operations. I know about the drug war's failures from firsthand, frontline experience.

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--------------------------Matthew Fogg - LEAP BIO--------Matthew Fogg of Amnesty International
-----------------------------------------------------------ringing the bell for justice.

This "war" -- declared as such by President Richard Nixon in 1971 -- has escalated over the years and is now one of the most egregious policies of government wrongdoing in our nation's history.

It is a violent and wasteful exercise in futility. It is an assault on our Constitution. It is both a racist and cultural assault upon the citizens of this nation, with no legal justification. And it is not founded upon any coherent notion of justice or common sense.

Most of all, the drug war fails to protect our youth. In fact, it increases both the harms and danger to today's generation of young people.

How many of today's politicians have used drugs in their past? Has their former drug use prevented them from seeking office? Did that use prevent them from getting elected? Did that use prevent them from being effective in their offices?

Obviously, the answer is no. Many elected leaders admit past drug use, including a former president and a current candidate for our nation's highest office. But would any of them have risen to positions of prominence and power if their past had included a conviction for drugs?

Using illegal drugs is most often done in a person's youth. The most common substance of experimentation is marijuana. That particular plant has been around for thousands of years and has a prominent place in human history as both an agricultural commodity (for its fiber and seed) and as a medicine.

Not until an extreme bigot -- who was a career Prohibition bureaucrat -- began a campaign of "reefer madness" seven decades ago was hemp even controversial. But Harry Anslinger's efforts became the template for the 70 years of drug prohibition to follow.

All illegal drugs were at one time legal substances. Not until they became illegal did the problems of their abuse ever escalate into real problems. For young people today, the problems are multiple. Not only are the drugs readily available, but they are often adulterated and made more dangerous because their control is in the hands of unscrupulous criminal predators and their organizations.

Plus there are the additional hazards of government drug policies. Random drug testing in our schools is a growing movement that essentially teaches our children that submission to authority outweighs the principles of individual liberties guaranteed in our Constitution.

Seizures need to be accompanied by a warrant describing exactly what is to be seized and describing the reasons for seizure. Drug testing is both random and warrantless.

Is this the lesson in civics we wish to be teaching? Or should we be reinforcing the notions of both personal responsibility that falls on individuals and their rights as plainly laid out by the ultimate law of the land -- our Constitution and its core Bill of Rights?

Make no mistake, the drug war is wrong and a fraud being perpetrated upon us by those with a vested interest in the industries profiting from it. The time has come for this war to be exposed as the egregious and racist wrong that it has become.

When our government's policies have brought us to the point that we imprison black males at a rate six times greater than South Africa's heinous apartheid, it is time for all of us to acknowledge its racist roots.

When we seize the most personal of personal property, bodily fluids, from our children and subject them to searches by police dogs and armed police in their schools, we have become that which generations past have fought so righteously against.

 

Freedom_User

I like how most of the people who are behind the movement to stop the drug war are mostly ex cops and DEA Agents.

Buzzby

Ex-LEOs form only a small part of the people behind the movement to stop the drug war. The movement long predates the advent of LEAP and other organizations mostly made up of former LEOs. NORML has been around since 1970. LEAP wasn't founded until 2002.

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elgrande

Jake

Some good points, but the War on Drugs is much more damaging in a economic class standpoint, and even a racial standpoint, than a generational one. Young kids get busted because they're not experienced enough.

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GorillaP1mp

You have to look at the current statistics for non-violent drug offenders in prison recently which is now over a million, 30 years ago this wasn't the case so I think it is affecting the younger generation more than previous as well as the economic and racial impact.

KWhite

GorillaP1mp-

That is a very astute observation- I thought I'd looked at it from all angles....

Thanks.

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"Your mind is your own, your body as well, from the soul we need not speak, tend it well, making those decisions you deem worthy, aware all responsibility is in your hands when the smoke clears" Kelly L. White

"It is a principle of natural justice that when bad men make bad laws, or when unprincipled authorities compromise good ones, citizens are justified in protecting themselves from the very authority that compromised law and order." Gandhi

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dedbr

Lots of good stuff in here.......

He hit it right on the head with this statement. As a matter of fact, I'm going to keep that one......

I wish more politicians felt this way. We have a Bill of Rights that has been trampled into the ground by the invasions of the government into our privacy. Our homes are invaded with impunity, children put under the gun and all this at massive costs to us, the taxpayer's. We pay for it and support it and never say a word.........

Racist roots. This man has done his homework. The first law passed in the U.S. to make herb possesion a crime was in Utah, (Mormon). It was passed because a small sect of the Mormons went to Mexico and later came back to Utah. They brought some herb with them and as part of their punishment for leaving the "family", the government passed a law against their smoking habit.....

Ya know, there's a flip side to this that I have heard. Many parents say that the risk of exposure to other students who use herb may cause their kids to try it. They want a safe school so they know their kids are safe. I think that is a given with all of us. But, doesn't the ultimate responsibilty rest with the parent? I try to help my kids make the right decisions, even when they don't want to........

We recently had a thirteen year old boy busted in school for selling joints. We have a problem with drugs when thirteen year old kids are getting high, but it's a problem with parenting in my opinion.........Yes, he got the herb from his parents....... A perfect example of poor parenting.......


Some Where In Ded Land.............

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GorillaP1mp

dedbr said:
Racist roots. This man has done his homework. The first law passed in the U.S. to make herb possesion a crime was in Utah, (Mormon). It was passed because a small sect of the Mormons went to Mexico and later came back to Utah. They brought some herb with them and as part of their punishment for leaving the "family", the government passed a law against their smoking habit.....

From what I've researched (and please correct anytime I report inaccurate information), I've heard similar stories about the initial criminalization of marijuana except that they were more concerned in the rising hispanic population and since a main source of revenue for the immigrants were sales of marijuana, making it illegal was a covert way of forcing them out of the country. I'm sure that is definitely part of the reasoning but I would be interested to know where you found out about the Mormon story?

We recently had a thirteen year old boy busted in school for selling joints. We have a problem with drugs when thirteen year old kids are getting high, but it's a problem with parenting in my opinion.........Yes, he got the herb from his parents....... A perfect example of poor parenting.......

I definitely agree with your points on parenting, I have two daughters myself that are old enough that carelessly smoking or leaving anything lying around the house is definitely not the responsible thing to do (and oh how great the cause would be if everyone who smoked was responsible!) It's funny that parents argue that the risk of exposure is greater to their kids if they are around friends who smoke (which is a valid argument), but do the tests cover alcohol too? I'm MUCH more concerned about that than a doobie...lesser of two evils and all.

dedbr

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

Why Is Marijuana Illegal. I like this one the best I think........

I have another one if I can find it..........


Some Where In Ded Land...............