The war is raging and doesn’t appear to be wavering anytime soon.
I’m not referring to the seemingly endless quagmire in the Middle East. I’m referring to the raging war of America’s government against its own people. For lack of imagination, this war will be called the war on drugs.
It’s a topic I’ve written about before, but sometimes certain events make me revisit this sometimes forgotten war.
Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old Atlanta resident was recently gunned down by police when they were executing a “no knock” search warrant. The woman opened fire upon the officers in the attempted raid, and the officers logically shot back, killing the elderly woman.
The question isn’t whether the officers did the right thing or not. They shot someone who was shooting at them. That was the right thing to do. The question is, why were they raiding the home of a 92-year-old woman in the first place?
Surely they’re not worried about a possible 92-year-old drug addict. Maybe that sounds cynical, but if you’ve reached the age of 92 then you should be able to choose what mind-altering drugs you want in your body.
This particular case was about drug dealing, not drug using. They claimed that an undercover officer purchased narcotics from a man at the woman’s home earlier in the day.
What makes the war on drugs so bogus and phony is that it’s endless. Even if you assume that a major drug dealing operation was busted up by the raid, who exactly do you stop from getting drugs?
To make it clear, anyone who wants drugs can get drugs. And anyone who doesn’t want drugs doesn’t have to, unless they’re already addicted. And if that’s the case then you’re sick, not a criminal.
As the late comedian and philosopher Bill Hicks once asked, why is our drug czar a police officer instead a doctor, or someone who greater understands addiction? We treat alcoholism, gambling and a plethora of other addictions accordingly. Why not treat drug addiction the same way? The dealer plays a major role in addiction, but we won’t see Jack Daniels or The Tennessee Lottery Board getting raided anytime soon.
The other story that got under my skin recently was the story about the groom getting shot to death by police on his wedding day.
New York City police were conducting an undercover drug operation at a strip club when the shooting happened. CNN reported a veteran officer emptied two full 9 mm magazines into the party’s car, killing the groom and wounding the other two passengers. The incident is currently being investigated, but the fact that one of the passengers was shot 11 times means somebody was overreacting.
And all this stems from a nonsensical war on drugs that can’t be won. We are burning through millions of dollars every year on a bogus drug war. I’m not saying we should give up on fighting addiction; I’m saying we should put the money into education and medical research instead of endlessly funding stormtroopers to crack down on our citizens.
Just in case you haven’t realized, that isn’t working.
