You couldn't be more on the money--every assertion you make is true, and you could have written a lot more. A historical note for those who want to understand how this so-called 'war' came about: the "war on drugs" consists of two distinct phases--and neither one had anything to do with public health.
The first began as Prohibition ended, and was launched by Andrew Melon, treasury secretary, and his nephew-in-law, Harry Anslinger, who was commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for more than thirty years. Melon's interest in the 'war' was apparently financial. But Anslinger was a notorious racist, and during his reign at the FBN (which later became the Drug Enforcement Agency) he manufactured police reports to "prove" that marijuana caused users (especially those with brown or black skin) to turn violent. He suppressed medical information and rejected harm reduction policies, preferring prohibition and punishment--the same tactics that failed during Prohibition..
Richard Nixon launched the second phase of the 'war' in the early seventies. He had appointed a blue ribbon panel to look at cannabis--but subsequently refused to release the panel's report (which pointed out that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol). He told John Erlichman, one of his aides, that there were two groups of Americans that would never support him: Blacks and hippies. He reasoned that the former tended to favor crack cocaine as their drug of choice, while the latter had created a lifestyle that revolved around weed. By amping up the war on drugs, he said, he could disrupt both communities. It is Nixon's version of the war that lingers on today, continuing to cause incalculable harm and suffering.
Our drug policies are directly responsible for the rise of the cartels, and indirectly responsible for the epidemic of drug-related deaths. Those policies have also helped foster a mythology around drugs that is, unfortunately, accepted as scientific truth by millions of Americans--including federal, state and local policy makers.
It is true that drug addiction can be extremely difficult for many people. It is also true--based on a number of independent university studies--that eighty to ninety percent of casual narcotics users (including those who use methamphetamine and heroin) do not develop an addiction or have other adverse, life-altering impacts.
It is long past time to end the racist travesty that the war on drugs has always been ... and to adopt enlightened, fact-based policies that save lives, rather than condemning them.
