More than 100,000 Americans now die of drug ODs annually - a rate nine times the EU.
ODs are the seventh leading cause of death in the US
The US has reached a shameful milestone. In the 12 months from May 2020 to April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses — another landmark in the inexorable rise of drug fatalities. The COVID lock-down did not help, but the real driver of the OD explosion is opioids, particularly Fentanyl. This synthetic opioid is cheap and ubiquitous. Dealers add it to cocaine, meth, and party drugs to ‘improve’ the high. They press it into fake prescription pills, Even spray it on pot. Unfortunately, it is highly addictive. The result is predictable but avoidable.
Blame conservatives and their moral blindness. The ‘pro-life’ party has designed an anti-drug policy that does nothing to reduce the use of drugs. Greed, stupidity, and political expedience have sentenced 10,000s of Americans to death and exploded the prison population. For what? The American fatality rate is nine times that of the EU. How the hell did the wealthiest country in the world get here?
Let us look at some history. In December 2011, the Afghanistan War passed the Vietnam war to become America’s longest-ever military conflict. It then lasted another decade. But that marathon of pointless adventurism is a blip compared to America’s "War on Drugs". That exercise in futility started in 1969. And in 1971, the name became a household word, when in a speech to Congress, Nixon coined the phrase, to sum up the Government’s new coordinated policies tackling the scourge of drugs — specifically heroin.
Law and order conservatives applauded the measures to tackle the production, transportation, and distribution of drugs. And the good old boys were ecstatic at the thought of locking people up — especially minorities. Then, and now, these sanctimonious gits never miss the opportunity to inflict suffering. Especially as they believe addiction is a moral failing that does not happen to good Christians.
But while Nixon relied on these varlets for his political fortunes, he knew that tackling supply alone would be a waste of time. His speech talked about the need to address demand.
“While experience thus far indicates that the enforcement provisions of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 are effective, they are not sufficient in themselves to eliminate drug abuse. Enforcement must be coupled with a rational approach to the reclamation of the drug user himself.
“I am proposing the appropriation of additional funds to meet the cost of rehabilitating drug users.”
“But as long as there is a demand, there will be those willing to take the risks of meeting the demand. So we must also act to destroy the market for drugs, and this means the prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted.”
Nixon was a drunken, paranoid, racist political cheat. But he was also intelligent. And he could see what any dispassionate observer of the nature of the drug trade and addiction could see. If people demand it, someone will supply it. (See Prohibition)
But we did not address the demand for drugs. The political mood required a "tough on crime" approach. Nelson Rockefeller, New York’s liberal Republican Governor, paid attention. Anticipating a run for President in 1976, he came down hard. Rockefeller shed his compassion to become the most notorious figure in the early War on Drugs. He dropped his support for rehabilitation and adopted a "throw away the key" approach to addiction. His laws mandated prison sentences of 15 years to life for drug dealers and addicts — even those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, or heroin.
Other politicians, not wanting to be seen as squishy on crime, followed suit. States enacted extended mandatory sentences and three-strike laws. The US prison population exploded from 330,000 in 1973 to 2.4 million by 2008. It has remained over 2 million since, including c.500,000 in local jails unable to make bail. America has 2.2% of the worlds’ population — but 20% of the world’s prisoners. Even China does not lock up as many of its citizens.
The War on Drugs was so ineffective that ten years after its declaration Ronald Reagan had to say,
“Drugs are bad, and we’re going after them. We’ve taken down the surrender flag and run up the battle flag. And we’re going to win the war on drugs.”
Meanwhile, Nancy was telling kids. “Just say ‘No’.” And a PSA featuring an egg sizzling in a frying pan warned potential drug users of the pitfalls of drug use. Although telling people drugs fried their brain may have been more of a come-on than a deterrent.
Ronnie’s drug war was so unsuccessful that by the mid-1980s, he had opened the door for the crack cocaine epidemic. Crack had the benefit of allowing the racists to paint drugs as a Black problem. Although statistics show whites like illegal drugs just as much as anyone. In the early 1990s, Meth (‘hillbilly heroin’) hit the streets and put the kibosh on the ‘Blacks do more drugs than whites’ theory, as it devastated rural white America. And in the late 1990s, Perdue Pharma lied to promote Oxycontin as a ‘safe’ pain killer. Soon 1,000s of new addicts were minted. And now we have Fentanyl.
Drug addiction skyrocketed. And billions were spent to build new prisons and hire the staff and suppliers to run them. The private prison industry muscled up to the trough. Now they have diversified into locking up undocumented aliens. No one seemed to care that throwing an addict in jail with no rehab does nothing to tackle their addiction. And even prisons have an active drug trade — so much for walls and interdiction.
However, the symbol of all that is wrong with the war on drugs was the belief a border wall was a practical tool to combat illegal drug traffic. As the philosopher observed, the only thing a 20ft wall does is increase the sale of 22ft ladders. The folly did not stop there. Trump demanded drug traffickers face the death penalty. Asinine. If you work in the drug trade, you face death every day already. So how would that make a difference?
What is the solution? Stop treating drug use as a crime. Treat it the same way we treat alcohol use. Drunks only face legal consequences if they commit an assault, DUI, theft, or other crime. Do the same for drug users. And while we are at it, tax and regulate drugs the same as alcohol.
The poster child for this approach is Portugal. Contrary to some belief, when the country decided in 2001 to combat its HIV epidemic— caused mainly by contaminated needles and sex with drug users — it did not legalize drugs. It decriminalized possession. Drug growing, dealing, and trafficking are still crimes. Nevertheless, the effect was significant.
Those caught possessing are issued a summons. If the user had less than a ten-day supply, they meet with a three-person panel, comprising a social worker, a psychiatrist, and an attorney. The panel can hand out a small fine, restrictions on where the possessor can go (such as bars and clubs), discontinue social benefits and strip a professional (such as doctor or lawyer) of the right to practice. If the addict agrees to rehab, the panel will suspend the penalties. And drug use in Portugal has been cut in half.
Fiscal conservatives noticed the savings. Now they are joining with social liberals in promoting this rehabilitation over incarceration approach. But the increasing number of drug deaths show that we are nowhere close to implementing the right strategies to win the “War on Drugs”. The best approach would be to stop fighting it and instead campaign to cure addiction. If no one demanded drugs, there would be no point in supplying them.