The following are EMA’s personal comments on the article “A Columbia professor argues against our drug puritanism” published on the American news website VOX. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Aboitiz Group or its related parties.
Dear All,
This is a very real-life experience that we all must relate to. It is a very real experience of how emotion has engulfed reason and result in one of the greatest failures of the 20th Century.
“America’s drug regime is a failure. It has done almost nothing to curb drug use and has instead subsidized a sprawling prison-industrial complex and helped militarize police departments all over the country.”
“40,000 Americans die every year in car accidents…nobody is talking about banning cars…instead, we try to implement safety procedures.”
“Addiction has everything to do with concurrent illnesses”
And, of course, the fueling of the crime element who must have much of the bureaucracy sharing in their profits.
We all know that drugs have terrible effects on some people and less on others. We also know that the vast majority of recreational users are just that, recreational users.
We know the experience of the Volstead Act and how that fueled the rise of the Mafia and other criminal elements. They had Tommy guns. When the Latin gangs took over the drug business, assault rifles were the change adaption that we all saw.
Perhaps the real cause is a little deeper and that is what the author calls ‘puritanism’ — an interesting synonym for uninformed, ignorant, and unexperienced small minds.
Experience has taught us how the War on Drugs is the longest war that America has fought and continues to lose in every battle almost daily.
The damage that is caused by small minds??
EMA
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