The Drug War

Did you know that the drug companies spend more than $15 billion USD every year promoting their products? Imagine if Raul from down the street could lobby congress for HIS products. The question makes you think, doesn't it? Now I realize that most people buy into the propaganda about drugs. In fact I remember my step-grandfather running up to his room to check his things when he found out I was left alone in the house during a vacation a few years ago. Okay like fifteen years ago, but who's counting? Anyway it turned out he got some second or third-hand information about me experimenting with weed and he went off the deep end. All his hours spent 'witnessing' to people in prison had apparently taught him you 'can't trust a drug addict as far as you can throw them.' He is a full-time minister, by the way. He helped to found the church my Mom gives her life to. The point is, where does this idea about people who use drugs come from? What causes someone to immediately associate people who choose to violate the law in this aspect, with people who will violate any law just as quickly? I smoked like a freight train in my late teens and early twenty's. But I never robbed a convenience store in all that time. Not even one. I am living proof that not all drug users are criminals. What makes a man a criminal?

The drug company's have a cartel worth more than any other organized crime racket in history. They have a lock on a market so huge it makes your head spin. If they can afford $15 billion a year on advertising alone, imagine what their bottom line looks like. They have the money to do pretty much whatever they want. I would suggest that everybody read "Natural Cures" by Kevin Trudeau. While it isn't the fix-all implied by the title, it is a good source of information. The fact is our government is run by men with money. A lot of them choose to invest that money in company's that make half a trillion dollars a year. Does anyone want to guess how many of them own stock in big drug company's? What about the guys over at the FDA? Did you know that the employees of the FDA are allowed to buy stock and be involved with the drug company's, while at the same time being solely responsible for regulating them?

Look at it like this. What if the cops in Chicago were allowed to invest in the street drug trade? Imagine if they could sit together in expensive bars discussing their respective ideas about business in the city. I personally doubt they would waste their time shooting each other in the streets. They would probably rival the pharmaceutical industry in a year. Drugs are not illegal because they hurt people. The only drugs that are illegal are the ones that people want the most. This is not an accident. Think about the drugs that are prescribed by the millions every day in this country alone. Drug company's spend billions on research and development and they know how to run a business. They are up to their elbows in the mire of mammon. If you ask me they are brilliant. They even show doctors how to cross drugs to cancel the negative side effects. This of course brings on a whole new slew of side effects, which are being researched right now so another drug can be developed to fix them. It is a sick and twisted cycle, developed to make people rich.

Cocaine was prescribed for decades as a pain reliever. It used to be a major ingredient in Coca-cola and was used widely to treat common ailments. If you found this blog you can probably do the research needed to prove I speak the truth. The ONLY reason cocaine is illegal is because it's formula is so wide-spread and it is relatively easy to make. The instructions are even available on the web, if you were so inclined as to want to cook some up. I don't recommend it, but if you did what gives the federal government the right to determine what I should or should not ingest, smoke, or otherwise imbibe? There is no federal power given by the constitution to regulate any drug. If in fact we want to be a people that imprisons men and women for victim-less crimes should it not be for the states to decide? The answer to this is never really discussed in the media. They help to portray what happens to people that get hooked on something that is illegal. The TV show 'COPS' has become famous for it. But who speaks out for people who are hooked on legally prescribed medication? No one, because that is their intent. To keep you off the stuff you aren't paying them for, and on the stuff your government says is good for you. Marijuana is a prime example of this. Since there is little funding for research in this area we don't have a lot of numbers. What we do have are thousands of first-hand accounts of positive medical uses for what is now an illegal substance in most states. The theory is that if they made pot legal, then they would have to make all illicit drugs legal, and we would all be sitting on our front porches corked out of our gourd on crack. From my perspective however, it seems to me they are just pissed because if they make pot legal they would lose billions in sales. The only real side-effect we know of about canibus is an increase in appetite. Listen closely to the next drug commercial you see, and tell me whether you would trade that list of possible side-effects for the munchies.

So, let's say for a moment that I have proven the drug companies have a financial interest in keeping street drugs, specifically pot, off the market. Let's look at who else benefits. On the other side of the world from the FDA exists a different law-enforcement body. Created by the Reagans in the 80's, the war on drugs eventually brought us a brand-new trillion dollar bureaucracy. The DEA, or drug enforcement administration. This arm of federal power consists of a modest-sized army, who's supposed aim is the eradication of illegal drugs in the US. This costly monster has seized billions of dollars worth of real-estate and other assets from convicted drug dealers and people involved with drug-based crimes. While they play games in the streets with the gangs and the dealers, the real losers are the tax payers. If you think for a moment the intelligence gathering power of this nation couldn't shut down the dealers if they really wanted to, I can't help you. It seems obvious to me that no one is serious about really shutting down the flow of so much money. Where does it all go, I wonder?

We have become a nation derailed by it's own government. Fed lies for generations about what is 'good' for us we have become totally dependent on this beast for nearly everything. Some people say that the war on drugs was a prelude, possibly even a bit of a training exercise for the war on terror. I think it's worse than that. This particular war was declared on my homeland. Against it's citizens. There are 1.75 million people rotting away in prisons in this country. Hundreds of thousands more are injured or dead. How far are we willing to go? How many people will we make worse by exposing them to a prison system that is well known to to make monsters out of non-violent offenders? To me the answer is clear. Just as it was during prohibition, so it is now. People want to get high. They want to choose an escape from their troubled lives. If this choice hurts them, then that is their problem. But if this choice costs John Q Taxpayer millions of dollars in return for creating a monster, then I say legalize the drugs and treat those with control issues. It only makes sense, does it not?