The
most defining moment of the 2007 International Conference on Drug Policy
Reform occurred when Washington State Legislator, Roger Goodman, awkwardly
echoed Richard Nixon in 1971 when Nixon stated that "drugs tear
families apart". If our legislators have lived on Earth for
only a day, they have lived long enough to know that it is absurd to say
that drugs tear families apart. If they did, a trip to the pharmacy
could cost someone their marriage. That's absurd. However,
drug laws do tear families apart and we have plenty of evidence to justify
this in the thousands of children that are living on the street after
their parents were imprisoned for drug possession, drug trafficking or
other drug-related charges. Drugs law propaganda reaches
everyone and sets the stage for failure; not the drugs.
During the 1990s, televised commercials
of a crazed woman wielding a frying pan which she uses to destroy
everything in her path to demonstrate what drugs do to the brain, may have
gotten public attention, but if anyone really gave it any thought, all
they really did was to demonstrate just how violent anti-drug disorder
(ADD2) has become in society. ADD2 is finally being recognized by
groups such as LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) whose members
realize that the first goal of law enforcement is to protect citizens; not
destroy their lives. The WOD today is a brutal reminder that
the US as a society can only resolve problems through violence and
war. While other countries support the UN because they would rather
diplomacy than war, the US has been using the UN as a springboard to
violence. Since 2001, the US has flexed its muscle in the UN so many
times that it has threatened the existence of unity throughout the
world. Here are some examples:
- During the aftermath of the September
11th terrorist attacks, the US persuaded other countries to join
forces against terrorism or else they would be expelled from the UN
and regarded as a terrorist nation which can be freely overthrown.
- In 2003, the US turned against Iraq, a
member of the UN, even though Suddam Hussein complied with every
request made by the US. In the original vote, the US was the
only nation that felt war with Iraq was necessary. When the UN
reported these results, the US went after countries dependent upon
assistance and threatened to sanctions that would threaten the lives
of innocent human beings. What the US was saying was: We
must kill innocent people either in your country or Iraq.
- Two years later, the US emerged with a
demand that all nations adopt a zero tolerance policy towards
drugs. Zero tolerance outside the US is the deadliest vice a
nation can impose on it's people. Most of the European nations
have been promoting harm reduction tactics that have had phenomenal
results. When these nations said no to zero tolerance, the US
again threatened to draw sanctions against these nations. What
the US has accomplished throughout the world is to destroy freedom and
put the US to shame.
When the day comes that the US will
be in need of assistance, other nations will let the US perish and
rightfully so. |