Richard Nixon first coined the term "war on drugs" on June 17, 1971. This was his response to the a report issued by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, known as the Shafer Report, which said that marijuana was essentially a harmless drug with little to no addictive potential. The culture war on marijuana had already begun several decades earlier in 1937, but had been a much smaller conflict up to that point; Nixon made it an all out war.
It's a war that claims to protect children, but instead opens the drug black market and exposes our youth to readily accessible substances including cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. It's a war that the Bush administration said would injure the terrorists, but instead keeps the profits from drug sales in the hands of dealers and dangerous cartels. It's a war that promises to stifle drug use, but instead encourages it on every level. It's a "moral" war that injures the American taxpayers and law-abiding citizens, while simultaneously benefiting major corporations. But most importantly, it's a war that the United States government is waging against its own citizens; it's a civil war.
And it's time for that war to end.
Marijuana is a drug capable of treating over 200 different medical conditions. It is not physically addictive, and it causes no long term damage to the user, unlike alcohol, a very popular and very legal substance. It is not illegal because it is dangerous. It is illegal because money is involved...and you'd be surprised to learn just who profits from its status as an illegal narcotic. Join me daily as I explore pot and the consequences of its illegal status on our society, and learn for yourself the truth about the civil war on drugs.
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| The sad thing is, this isn't far from the truth. |
-John D.. McGaughey
So youre going to write everyday about drugs and only about drugs?
ReplyDeleteI like that idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't want my readers to get the wrong idea. This blog is about the war on drugs and its effects on society. In deconstructing the war, I naturally spend a great deal of time discussing various drugs, particularly marijuana. But the actual issue isn't drugs; it's drug abuse, and the blog explores how America's cultural war on all drugs both ignores the real problem while creating new problems, and actually solves virtually nothing while costing the American taxpayer a lot of money.
ReplyDelete