Many awoke this morning to see a full-page advertisement in their morning newspaper (i.e. the Los Angeles Times), vividly linking the use of illicit drugs with murder of families in Columbia. The message is simple; the use of banned drugs is a direct contribution to worldwide terrorism and the slaughter of innocents.
Some now feel they are in the world of 1984 and "Newspeak". Wasn’t it just a few months ago that the United States gave a 43 million dollar reward to the Taliban for suppressing opium production? Didn’t we just read that the "War on Terrorism" had resulted in the new planting of poppies in Afghanistan?
In Columbia the United States is funding one side in a civil war where extremists on both sides are reaping blood money from the cocaine trade. Did the US declare war on the right wing death squad "narco-terrorists" in Columbia? Or just the left wing "narco-terrorists"? Is the question now academic since the government makes clear that it is the appetite for banned drugs here in America that is responsible for worldwide terrorism?
Sensible citizens in local communities have already decided that folks with drug abuse problems need treatment not incarceration. They have also decided that honest and intense education for our children is far past due. They resent the twisted logic of the government in its latest propaganda effort. We used to call announcements from our government "news". Now, few are sure just what to call it. If our fellow citizens are responsible for terrorist murder, is the government now calling on "war" on them? Are we to send folks experimenting with banned drugs or medicating with such, to Guantanomo Bay for imprisonment in cages?
Just who is America fighting? Are we fighting the sick and dying who find relief from medical cannabis? Are we assaulting our young people for using bad judgment in youthful experimentation? Why do I keep thinking this is some bad re-run of uptight and stupid parents raging at their children when what really bothers them is that they can’t pay their bills or get over the abuse they received as children?
These are questions that must be answered and answered quickly. The entire world is watching America destroy itself and threaten innocents everywhere in what started as a noble cause. It is time for moral sensibility, cool logic, and open debate before perverted personal and cultural attitudes undermine the values that hold America together.
The "War on Drugs" was a failure from the start. Linking it to the "War on Terror" only paints the current war with the stink of the last wars hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy.
