The Yellow Rose Mission to End the War on Drugs

On December 11, 2006, I founded the Yellow Rose Mission when it became clear that U.S. drug policy was not only a barrier to psychoactive medication that people need to treat legitimate medical disorders, but the drug policy that the U.S. recklessly imposes on other nations, has resulted in steady but sharp increases in the number of drug-induced deaths in the U.S., an absolute indication that America's War on Drugs (WOD) is reinforcing drug abuse. And why not when K12 students are learning how to abuse drugs. But how can this be, you might be asking. Isn't it logical to teach kids about street drugs and how people abuse them? Isn't it logical that we then teach K12 students how to resist the temptation?

NO! There's your answer. This is not logical.

Would it make sense to offer students "Motor Vehicle Accident Education" as opposed to "Motor Vehicle Safety Education" ?

Everything we learn as students and teach as adult is the right way to do something. We don't learn how to drown; we learn how to swim! We learn how to spell words correctly. Imagine if we learned how to spell words incorrectly. Imagine if our schools taught students the wrong way to add, subtract, multiply, and divide! It wouldn't take long before an organization sprouted called "The Partnership for an Arithmetic-Free America".

If we want the next generation to be "Smart on Drugs" as President Obama promised before he moved into the White House, then our generation needs to start teaching K12 students how drugs are properly used; not abused.

So why hasn't Barack Obama mandated a presidential order for K12 schools to adopt Drug Use Education as an alternative to the WOD? Well, one answer might be that it is easier to fit a drug store through the eye of a needle than it is for a reformed drug abuser to serve up legislation that legitimizes illicit street drugs.

What the government wants you to believe is that the WOD is working. The government wants you to believe that nothing was worse than the administration of Jimmy Carter, when the American society was saturated with 50% more drugs than there are today.

The truth is that every day both illicit and prescription drugs become more prevalent in our society.

For those unwilling to accept this truth, you must realize that the Center for Disease Control (CDC), a government organization, keep meticulous records of U.S. citizens who have died and accurately associates them with the cause of death. In 1969, the CDC reported 2,159 drug-induced deaths across the U.S.. This figure includes the accidental death resulting from illicit drugs and prescription drugs. as the major component. By 1979, there were 7,101 drug-induced deaths in the U.S. A year later, that figure dropped to 6,900 during the last year of the Carter presidency. In the last 31 years, that's the lowest it's been. As for the largest number of drug induced-deaths, that's most likely to be the current year which political and drug war experts believe will top 50,000 in one year.

----------------------------

In early 2007, the Yellow Rose Mission evolved into the Drug Use Education (DUE) Process Initiative (DPI), generating more interest, intrigue, support and criticism. Faced with the deicion to either write a book or work within the 2008 Presidential Election, I sought the latter, hoping that I would have been able to introduce the type of "change" that the U.S. needs to the Obama campaign. Thus far, the Obama administration has failed to support policies that benefit all Americans, and has taken an anti-Democratic approach to the WOD issue, following in Clinton's footsteps.

Despite the loss of support from President Obama and members of Congress, the DPI continues to focus on promoting change to state and local drug laws.

-------------------------------------------------------

Just as FDR ended Prohibition, not by simply bringing alcohol back into U.S. states and communities, but by introducing responsibility that germinates maturity, the DUE Process Initiative is not only about developing a more sophisticated, medical and drug savvy public, but replacing :

FEAR, IGNORANCE

and SHAME

with

KNOWLEDGE, DISCIPLINE,

and TRUST