H. CON. RES. 415

This congressional resolution celebrating the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition shows the hypocrisy of the legislature continuing to support the drug war. There are many interesting statements made, but this one stands out in my mind:

Whereas passage of the 18th Amendment, which prohibited `the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors' in the United States, resulted in a dramatic increase in illegal activity, including unsafe black market alcohol production, organized crime, and noncompliance with alcohol laws

Undoubtedly, the following edit to the statement is just as true:

Whereas passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which prohibited `the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating drugs' in the United States, resulted in a dramatic increase in illegal activity, including unsafe black market drug production, organized crime, and noncompliance with drug laws

It is striking that our leaders can officially recognize the ills of one form of prohibition on one hand, and praise another form with the other.

Virtually every line in the resolution applies equally to Prohibition as the drug war. I hope that it will become an advocacy point.

H. CON. RES. 415 (PDF)

The National Drug Intelligence Center is out of touch

NDIC recently released its 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment. Its disappointing but not surprising that the center continues to attribute problems to drug use and abuse that are obviously caused by the prohibition scheme. I wish they were alone in this distorted view but it is obviously held from the highest levels of government down to everyday households. When innocent people are slain by stray bullets fired in territory disputes, the blame is often placed on drugs. This logic would hold true if those same disputes still occurred over alcohol.

There continue to be numerous parallels between Prohibition and the modern drug war. It seems that legislators and other policymakers have selective amnesia or blindness about them. There are few if any legislators who would give a second thought to making alcohol illegal again. ONDCP director John Walters has said that re-creating that black market would not be in the nation interests. Somehow we are suppose to believe that the vicious and deadly black markets we currently have are good for the nation. The simple fact is that in order to continue the drug war must be viewed as a completely different animal than Prohibition. The only differences are that one is exponentially worse than the other.

There is no doubt that drugs can wreak havoc in the lives of those who cannot handle them. It is my contention as well as many others that the involvement of law enforcement increases that havoc and starts a vicious cycle. For those who have any doubt, you need look no further than our President-elect. He is fortunate to never have been arrested for cocaine possession when he abused the drug during his youth. We likely would not know who he is had he been.