Between 1919 and 1933 in the USA the Volstead Act prohibited the sale, manufacture, consumption and transportation of liquor anywhere in America. Brought on by pressure from the temperance movement the Noble Experiment did little to stop Americans from drinking. In fact it's reckoned that in 1925 there was between 30,000 and 100, 000 speakeasy clubs in New York alone. The biggest single effect that prohibition had was to allow organised crime to flourish. It was in this period that, what we now know as the Mafia, really came of age, born and assisted by the huge amounts of money they could make from selling illegal booze.Are you listening at the back!!?
In 1969 President Nixon (yes him) coined the phrase 'War on Drugs' to describe the action that the US was, for forty years, to take to prohibit the sale, manufacture (can you see where I'm going with this?), consumption and transportation of illegal drugs internationally. Brought on by pressure from...
Prohibition doesn't work. That's what I'm trying to say. It didn't work in the 20's and it hasn't worked in the 70's, 80's, 90's and the Noughties. Prohibiting drugs, booze, sex, gambling is never going to work, for the simple reason that people want to do these things - possibly and probably at the same time.
The US government has spent 33 BILLION dollars on the War on Drugs (though Obama doesn't want the phrase used anymore) this year. The drugs trade, globally, is worth $320 BILLION a year. If we were to legalise and regulate the drugs trade tomorrow, that's $353 billion you could give to the banks. (The $33 billion, by the way, doesn't include the money that's spent taking the 1 million plus Americans through the courts for drug offences every year). Legalisation would be more likely to ensure a safe product, cutting the chances of snorting coke cut with strychnine or dropping dead after swallowing an adulterated pill. Take the money and the control out of the hands of the dealers and you create a revenue stream that would be very welcome at the moment and stop shit drugs flooding the streets. There was a senior police man on the radio the other day who was explaining that the amount of shite or deadly cocaine on the streets presently was the result of successful operations against traffickers. He was contributing to a phone in about dealers making low supply last longer by cutting their gear up with boric acid and worming powder. The War on Drugs creates a twisted reality, to match the effects of the drugs themselves. Go back to the 20s for a moment, where they brewed up moonshine, when supply's got short and made every fucker blind.
The other parallel to be drawn is evil bastards with guns. In the 20s you had Al Capone and the like, roaring around spraying each other with tommy guns from the windows of Caddys. Now you've got gangsters hosing each other down from the back seats of beamers. In the words of the Propellerheads 'it's all just a little bit of history repeating'. We really should learn from stuff like this, it would save us a lot of time and money. Also if anyone wants to hose down the Propellerheads, feel free.
Why are we banning drugs at all? It can't be because of the risk factor.Last year 3000 people died from drugs. That's legal and illegal drugs. In the same period 7300 people died from alcohol related causes. 106000 people each year die from smoking related illness. What about a War on Fags (easily misconstrued?), what about a return to the Noble Experiment? If it's a question of taxation, then tax drugs. How's about we all sit down, skin one up, drop a little 'un or two and talk sensibly about how to get ourselves out of this mess. Stop banning everything! They're banning legal highs now. It won't stop me from doing drugs even if I end up going to a house where three men, in vests and tats, are sitting on deckchairs (the only furniture), watching a black and white telly, sipping super strength beer, while I shakily give them twenty quid for an eighth of shit slate resin. Lets take the discussion away from people who have no fucking clue about drugs and sort out a solution. Stop throwing money down the drain.
Anway - rant over. Sorry it's not more coherent, but I've been sitting in a room with an open fire all night and I think I may have got carbon monoxide poisoning.
Final thought. We're burning poppy fields in Afghanistan while at the same time experiencing a global shortage of opium for morphine. Ho hum
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