38. Perseveration in the "War on Drugs"
A few days ago, BlackProf ran a piece about the disenfranchisement of felons, reporting that a full 25% of black men in Virginia are ineligible to vote because of their records. In Arizona, "soldiers and law officers lined up to accept bribes from what they believed were representatives of Mexican cocaine cartels," according to the Arizona Republic. Bolivia elected a former coca grower as president, while Colombia remains mired in a civil war financed by cocaine. In my hometown of Albuquerque, Presiding Judge John Brennan pled guilty to cocaine possession.
While the conservative Heritage Foundation floods the Internet with research (or, at least, talking points) about using governmental authority to keep families intact, the Republican Party's 2004 platform advocated prison time for drug users (page 73), tearing families apart in the most literal way imaginable. The vast increase in America's corrections population since Ronald Reagan took office has helped to normalize prison for millions of children, presumably not the intent of Nancy Reagon's "Just Say No" campaign. Growing up with an addicted parent is a terrible misery. But can anyone believe that it's a improvement to grow up with a parent who is not only addicted but in and out of jail?
The costs of the war on drugs include dirty judges (and what cheaper insurance could a drug dealer purchase than a judge?), wars and social breakdown in South America, destroyed families in America, the formal expelling of hundreds of thousands of adults from our political life, and of course the expenditure of billions of dollars. (For a more vivid sense of how many dollars all those zeroes represent, check out this War on Drugs Clock.)
And the benefits are ...? Go back to that Republican Party platform and you'll read about the destructive effects of drug use. The points are all valid, but how are they addressed by the proposed solutions? How can anyone convince him- or herself that a program in use since Nixon's formation of the DEA is finally going to start working tomorrow? Mental health professionals have a word to explain it: perseveration.
Joel Jacobsen
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Very informative.