An Answer to the Drug Problem

A REAL SOLUTION TO THE DRUG PROBLEM - 1999 - Rev, Jan 2008

In my opinion, our current "War on Drugs" should be renamed "War on Drug Symptoms." It comes to mind that the hard drug problem provides an example of how often we address the symptoms while ignoring the problem. I have a rather simple solution to the drug problem which would be easy to implement and would probably work! For some reason, simple, effective solutions to eliminate the root of a problem are frequently ignored in favor of complex, expensive, symptomatic ones. Sadly, the simple solution I propose would be opposed on moral grounds by the self-righteous, on political grounds by those politicians who benefit from the continuing drug problem and on financial grounds by all those people whose hands are in the drug pot. There are very many in each of these three groups all over the world who don’t really want the drug problem to disappear.

The first thing to do is to really admit there is a root to the problem. We have admitted that there is a drug problem, but have been ignoring the root and treating the symptoms only. What is the root cause? Very simply, people who want drugs are the cause. Because drugs are illegal, there are powerful incentives for the young to use them. It’s cool. Being illegal makes taking them exciting and very expensive! You'd think we would have learned that lesson from the results of prohibition. As with illegal booze, the high costs of illegal drugs make for high profits and provide wealth to many criminals involved along with the murders, turf wars and political payoffs that goes with it. All that money makes instant millionaires and many dead kids. It’s a self feeding epidemic -- a demonic Hydra -- chop off one head and two more appear! Kid is given drugs! Kid wants more, but has no money. Kid steals to get money, then starts dealing to feed his habit and so the supply tree grows with the most vicious and deadly climbing the power ladder with many bodies dropped along the way to the top.

If you think that money doesn't add up to lots of power, look at my January 14, 2008 article about a Mexican drug house and the photos of literally hundreds of millions in cash at - http://hojo2rants.blogspot.com/

In precisely the same way prohibition made us a nation of drinkers and alcoholics, drug prohibitions made us a nation of users and addicts. While I do not propose removing the legal penalties for private drug possession and sales, I do propose a radical solution which will remove the monsterous profits from illegal drug sales and deprive organized crime of it's most lucrative money maker. Remove the profit from the illegal drug trade and the life blood of all associated criminal activity will drain away and the drug cartels will disappear, at least grow far weaker if deprived of American money. The rest of the world, or at least those nations not controlled by drug lords, might then adopt similar policies with similar benefits. All diligence must be taken to keep political hands out of the resulting system; difficult, but certainly not impossible. As long as the only source for these drugs is criminal enterprise the killings and degradation of addiction will continue. All that cash makes it so.

The heart of this very simple and effective solution, free drugs! Once drugs are free, all the associated criminal activity will cease. Without profit in it, there would be no kids out trying to get other kids to use drugs, no corner dealers, no crack houses, no drug lords and no one being killed for drugs. This is one thing our government could do if we could get over our massive ego driven self righteousness and all the anti drug rhetoric from those who don’t really want the problem solved. Steps to the solution are as follows:

Part one. Create drug treatment centers as needed throughout the country.

Part two. Staff these centers with medical and support personnel whose financial incentive is based on getting patients off drugs.

Part three. Provide free any drug needed to any person who comes into the treatment center and registers as a user.

Part four. Leave all laws about dealing and possession in place, but remove all laws punishing use.

Part five. Negotiate for the cheapest source of all drugs to be purchased by our government for distribution to the centers.

The details:

Part one. Create drug treatment centers as needed throughout the country. There are already many drug treatment centers in existence. These would have to be expanded, redesigned and joined in a network with the many new centers required for the complete system. This would not happen overnight as the number of people coming to these centers after the required legal changes is a complete unknown. Many new centers should be planned as temporary since the number of addicts could decline quickly and drastically, particularly among the young.

Part two. Staff these centers with medical and support personnel whose financial incentive is based on getting patients off drugs. While there are already qualified people who could staff these centers, additional people would undoubtedly have to be hired and trained. A group and individual bonus program based on the number and quality of the individuals who left the program "drug free" could be an aid to effectiveness. Since the opportunity for mischief by staff members exists as it does in all situations, stringent rules would have to be in place. For instance, any staff member who took any drug for any reason or under any circumstance except the written prescription of a physician would lose their job immediately. Routine drug tests of all staff members would be conducted frequently. Keeping lowlife types off the payroll would require massive effort, but it would be worth the effort. Like many law-enforcement agencies, a previous felony conviction would disqualify any person from working at any drug center.

Part three. Provide needed drugs free to any person who comes into the treatment center and registers as a user. The operative word is "register" and this is how it works. A user must register and enter a treatment program to receive any drug. Drugs will only be provided for use at the center and under supervision. There would be no dirty needles and NO EXCEPTIONS! Hard cases could be housed in temporary housing at the center until they are ready and able to manage on their own. While the costs of this program would be quite high, I’m certain it could not be as high as the current cost of the drug "war" and associated evils. Unfortunately, by the time the politicians and bureaucrats finished creating the required legal and financial structure, costs would doubtless quadruple. Even with them filling their hands and pockets, the costs would still be a small fraction of the costs of the current system.

Part four. Leave all laws about dealing and possession in place, but remove all laws punishing use. Constant efforts would have to be in place to prevent theft and conversion of the drugs into the black market which is certain to evolve from the current drug economy. The drug economy would certainly be decimated by having to compete with a legal source of free drugs and would certainly vanish as a major problem for law enforcement. The "pusher" would become a creature of the past along with drug dealers and drug lords. Gangs fighting over drug "turf" would have nothing to fight over. The gang problem would stay, but their current major source of income would be gone. They would surely be far weaker and less dangerous than they are now.

Part five. Negotiate for the cheapest source of all drugs to be purchased by our government for the centers. Removal of criminals from the drug supply system would drop the costs dramatically. These costs would doubtless represent only a tiny portion of the costs of this Federal Drug Rehabilitation System. The required drug distribution system could be tightly monitored and controlled. Drug purity could be tested and monitored to prevent deaths from poisons or other impurities.
Drawbacks would include those who do not respond to treatment and continue to use drugs. Also, drug OD deaths would no longer remove people from the ranks of drug users. The numbers of those in these last two categories is completely unknown and would not be apparent until the program had been in operation for at least a year or two. There would always be those few who would refuse to come to the treatment centers and might support a small black market. Wealthy users, Hollywood druggy types, hardened criminals and a few other kooks with money would probably support a small criminal drug economy. Without the billions now flowing through the drug economy, the police would be far better equipped to handle them. It would be much like the difference between the problem with bootleggers during prohibition and the problem with bootleggers now.

Who would be against it? All those who profit from the multibillion dollar drug trade including not just those in the trade themselves, but those politicians and law officials who are bought and paid for by the drug traffickers. Also, the ultra moralists from both the right and left, who always turn to legislation to cure moral problems. Many of these people equate standards and requirements of their own culture with morality. They are relatively normal people with very strong feelings about right and wrong according to their own definitions. Lord deliver us from the legislation of the self-righteous!

This capsule description would have to be carefully expanded into an active program before it could be implemented. I’m certain many real and imaginary obstacles would have to be overcome for it to work. It would most certainly overcome drug crime and probably reduce substantially the number of drug dependents. Petty drug crime might persist for a while and marijuana is a special case, but removing the criminality of use and the billions of dollars of profit currently going into the criminal drug economy would go a long way toward complete elimination of the drug problem.

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