America’s War Against Minorities

Reading the headlines, another massacre, death and destruction, a gift of the drug war, a war fought without end, destroying lives but helping none.  For 40 years, our nation has fought the war on drugs and after 40 years, the only thing we have to show for it is packed prisons, broken homes, and the militarization of our police.  People say we have to keep fighting but what are we fighting for?

Our last three presidents smoked dope and one shared a little blow.  Drug use is endemic and still we keep fighting this war.  Now we have a private prison system to hold the noncriminals, prisons that compete with local industry paying slave wages of $.25 an hour.  Why move offshore, when you can open a new factory at the local prison?  Over 70% of African American children are raised in single parent households because law enforcement focuses on poor minorities unable to fight back.  The drug war is lost and yet we keep fighting it like Ahab chasing his white whale.

There are lots of reasons to use drugs so let’s start with the main one, hopelessness.  We sent our jobs overseas but did not create new ones to replace them.  Without economic opportunities, there is only hopelessness in our inner-cities.  Young children walking along the street choose role models of successful people, the ones they see every day working the street corners, after all America worships money and the drug dealers have it.  Rapstars and singers promote the drug culture making it cool and exciting but most of all they make it legitimate.  Our only response is tougher sentencing and longer jail terms.  With over 1 million people in jail for nonviolent drug offenses, it begs the question, does this even make sense?

In Portugal things got so bad, they decided to think outside the box and decriminalized drugs.  The naysayers decried the horrific possibilities that drug use would escalate and more would succumb.  The truth is there was little change in the number of drug users and crime has dropped dramatically.  This issue is one of personal responsibility, not societal responsibility.  People have to make individual choices about right and wrong.  When the government takes that responsibility away from people and pretends to be the parent, inevitably people will resist, that is what children do.  If someone chooses to ruin his or her life with drugs that is his or her choice, to suggest that imprisoning that person will somehow benefit society defies common sense.  Once imprisoned, a person is forced to join gangs for protection, they will never find a decent job in the future, their family is split-up, and the state takes on the burden of supporting more children.  Sure some people need a helping hand to manage their problem but imprisoning them is not help, it is a disaster.

In Texas, cross-border trade continues to drop as Americans become more and more frightened with every headline.  In fact, the US border has become a no-go zone driven by the need of cartels to control smuggling routes.  We continue to punish people for using Marijuana despite the fact that Marijuana is far less dangerous to one’s health than cigarettes.  Marijuana should be legalized and regulated like cigarettes and alcohol.  People call it a gateway drug but that is not true, the gateway drug of choice is alcohol.  Poor people use harder drugs because they do not have physician friends to prescribe them legal pharmaceuticals.  No reason to use coke if one can get percodan or valium from their local CVS.  We feed our children Ritilin and then act surprised when they get hooked on harder drugs later in life or prescribe zantex and other drugs to help one get through the day.  It is time to behave rationally and accept that, like alcoholism, a certain percentage of our population is susceptible to drug addiction.  We must treat the addiction, not punish the person. Our constitution guarantees equality to all men (women, too), not just the ones with the proper paperwork and our nation was built on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I doubt anyone can find happiness looking through a set of steel bars.  One cannot commit a crime against oneself, one can only choose to commit stupid acts.  The government is not our father and mother and it needs to let go.  Stop the war on drugs and bring peace to our neighborhoods, our cities, and our borders.

The Justice party demands a return to individual responsibility to rebalance our society from one driven by governmental control of every phase of our life to one focused on wellness.  Our candidate Rocky Anderson supports ending the war on drugs, eliminating overseas efforts to stop production of drugs, legalizing the use of Marijuana, and decriminalizing the use of drugs.  Justice is more than a strong court -system, it includes showing compassion and mercy as well.  One must have a balance between a firm hand and a caring one.  The war on drugs is a war on minorities because they are the ones filling our prisons, leaving their children cast adrift in the concrete jungles prey to the drug dealers and criminals roaming our streets.  End the war on drugs and we end the need to have private prisons.  End the war on drugs and we end the need for so many families to collect welfare.  End the war on drugs and return peaceful borders to our southern states.  End the war on drugs and return personal liberty to our people.  Support Rocky Anderson for President and bring sanity and Justice back to Washington.