Anyone who has spent any time studying the war on drugs will soon become aware of the all-encompassing failure that the war on drugs has turned out to be. Billions of dollars has been spent on this effort and there is precious little to show for it. It sure has helped to militarize the police community though and through abuses of eminent domain they've managed to secure a lot of funds for themselves.
Many experienced professionals within the criminal justice field all say the same thing and they've been saying it for years: it's time we ended the war on drugs. It's time that we approached the issue of drug addictions in seeing it as a social problem in need of healthcare assistance, rather than a criminal problem that we need only deal with using force.
One police boss, Arfon Jones, in North Wales has had enough of the travesty as well and he recently suggested that authorities in the community should consider legalizing all drugs.
He says that a new approach is needed and that the war against drugs has totally and completely failed; and he's right. Jones argues that by legalizing drugs that it would take the power out of the hands of criminals and it would instead open up the possibility for addicts to get more support for themselves.
And there are many criminological experts who would assert the same, that the war on drugs only helps to benefit big pharma companies, drug cartels and other criminals. In fact, a recent UN Global Commission on Drug Policy annual report called for just the same. Jones says that they should look to following in the same footsteps as Portugal, because they decided to decriminalize drugs more than a decade ago and we can all see that their society didn't descend into chaos and implode.
They choose to see addicts as patients rather than criminals.
Someone who doesn't do heroine or crack today, isn't simply going to go out tomorrow and start-up an addiction just because it becomes legal. Would you? Probably not. The fear that some people might partake in the activity, has never stopped or prevented anyone from doing so, and it shouldn't be justification enough to continue on with a charade that costs many people their lives and has wasted countless resources. What we are waiting for the control freaks to accept is the fact that the war on drugs is inefficient, it's too costly (especially considering the comical inefficiency of it) and it's dangerous.
Continuing with the policy of trying to tell people what they can and cannot put into their own bodies, doesn't appear to jive with the narrative of seeking to advance their health or welfare of any kind. There is still a drug problem in many communities and the war on drugs isn't doing anything to stop it or make it better. And jails are being filled with people who haven't initiated an act of aggression against any other individual or their property; so why should they be kept in a cage like an animal? Jones is tired of seeing it, just like so many others are too, but will authorities in New South Wales be open to change? Best bet is that it isn't coming anytime soon.
Pics:
Business Insider/Getty
420 magazine
Sources:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/portugal-fifteen-years-decriminalised-drug-policy-161015091127668.html
http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/world-problems/war-on-drugs-failed-17112016/
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/consider-legalising-drugs-says-police-12238396
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/21/decriminalize-drugs-un-commission-drug-policy-report