Why The Drug War Should End
We have more people in cages in this country than any other country on Earth. We can't be the land of the free and the land of the incarcerated at the same time. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded. Much of this is due to people being incarcerated for victimless drug crimes. It's time we end this ridiculous drug war, which is really just a war on our fellow citizens. Instead, let's help anyone who has an addiction problem get the medical help they need. We can do better than putting our fellow citizens in cages for what is a health problem, not a criminal justice problem.
We need to end the war on drugs and once again be "the land of the free."
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STOPIf there is a drug task force operating in your state, city or county, participate in its hearings or meetings. Find out what they are advocating and whether or not they are taking a balanced approach. The focus now is typically on opioid overdose and the focus is often on treatment and making naloxone more available. You can influence the effort by informing the task force of the harms caused by prohibition and get goals and strategies related to reducing those harms added to the task force recommendations. Here is a link to the Milwaukee City-County Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force, which I am trying to influence.
https://milwaukee.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2965576&GUID=0563F682-215F-46EF-B751-663D43F417EC&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=161554
Another way to fight the drug war is to counter the addiction as brain disease metaphor. The Brain Disease Model of Addiction (BDMA) theory is used as a justification for the search for a genetic cause for addiction. Please see my article at https://steemit.com/disease/@paulmozina/is-freedom-a-disease. Characterizing a person’s choice to consume a substance as a disease, possibly one with a genetic origin, forms a building block or justification for continuing and expanding the war on drugs, albeit, from a more humane perspective. This approach typically advertises destigmatization of the substance abuser, but rarely if ever include decriminalization of their actions — an important contradiction that needs to be pointed out.