War! War! War!

THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY really began, not on 01/01/00, but on 9/11/01, when two aircraft brought down three tower blocks in the World Trade Center; since then, nothing has been the same. The United States has been spending resources - men, material, money - on war, principally in the Middle East.

I have not been in the Middle East for half a century, and even then I was not in Iran or Iraq or Israel, so I cannot tell you anything about the campaigns there. But there is another war that has been going on even longer, on which I can shed light.

Had you forgotten the War on Drugs?
It is:
(a) Unconstitutional; Congress can define only crimes against the citizens of EVERY State, such as treason, piracy, and counterfeiting the current coin; the States retain the power “of prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever” (Art. IX, Articles of Confederation.)
(b) Unlawful; consent is a defense to a crime; a surgeon, or a barber, is not guilty of mayhem. It would be a crime to sell someone cocaine if, but only if, se did not know it was addictive.
(c) Unlimited; narcotics enforcement is intruding into ordinary life, interfering with medical practice. Doctors fail, or refuse, to prescribe what they think best for the patient, for fear of attracting the attention of the enforcers.
(d) Undiplomatic; the War renders our neighbors enemies - Canadians and Mexicans do nor consider marijuana a menace, but neither do they want our addicts flooding into their countries. In Colombia and other South American countries, the struggle to grow coca faster than the U.S. Customs can destroy it is making ordinary foodstuffs too expensive for the workers.
(e) UnChristian; the Pharisees sought to dictate personal hygiene, but Jesus said: “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matt. 15:11.)
(f) Unwinnable; As narcotics become more and more expensive, so the narcotics trade becomes more attractive to the best and boldest men, men who want to be respected and prominent. The best and brightest Americans do not join the police or the customs - at least, we hope they don't!

What do we do, now? First and foremost, get the U. S. government out of the War on Drugs; the U. S. government has its hands full with wars against other countries. Then, the States can find their own ways to cope with the problem: providing methadone, providing clean needles, perhaps setting up enclaves where it is safe to dope yourself . . . .