Because I experience our culture entirely through the cathode-ray tube in my living room, I have to admit that my awareness of the war on recreational drugs had remained dormant since they stopped running those “this is your brain on drugs” ads in the late ’80s.
During the 2002 Super Bowl, though, my interest was rekindled when the president’s Office of National Drug Control Policy unveiled television commercials linking the war on drugs to the war on terror. The theory was that terrorists were funding their operations by selling drugs, so anyone who bought illicit drugs was therefore funding terrorism.
At the time, I thought, “This is the answer we’ve been looking for to get America on the right path!” I envisioned, for example, a thirtysomething oil man relaxing at home on a Friday night. He’s unwinding with a little non-medicinal marijuana when all of a sudden the aforementioned commercial comes on.
Our friend has an immediate catharsis.
“Wait a second. You’re telling me that when I buy pot I’m funding terrorism? You know, all these years I thought I was just lining the pockets of those clean-living drug dealers. Now you’re telling me my money’s going to the BAD MEN? I have got to kick this habit.”
He immediately heads for the bathroom and flushes his stash. This scenario is repeated in countless homes across the country, and two of our biggest problems are solved.
Unfortunately, my optimism was unfounded. As much as we might desire a nation populated exclusively with clear-eyed clean livers (by “liver” I mean “a person who lives” – not the body part; since we’re talking about drugs and not alcohol here you would still be free to turn your own liver as yellow as you want it), could it be that the problem is the “war” part and not the “drug” part? Let’s take a look:
The last time we tried prohibition in this country, it was called … er, Prohibition. Anyone recall how well that worked? All it did was water the seeds of organized crime until they grew into trees.
The same thing is happening today, both domestically and internationally. Yes, there is a connection between the drug trade and terrorism. Of course, we didn’t seem to mind it so much back in the ’80s when our friends, those freedom-loving Nicaraguan contras, were funding their operations by selling drugs on American streets, but hell, that was the ’80s. (Any decade that brought us U2 and Kajagoogoo is bound to have had some inconsistencies.) And we don’t seem to mind the paradox that now that the Taliban is no longer in power, Afghanistan has exponentially increased its poppy crop.
People rightfully freak out about the violence associated with drugs, but most of that violence has to do with gangs and cartels fighting for turf in order to distribute these illegal substances. Take away the illegality and you take away the armed conflict. There are no beer gangs, ladies and gentlemen. Pete Coors has never done a drive-by shooting at August Busch’s house (that we know of).
Then there’s the “protect-the-kids” angle. Do you honestly think it’s harder for a 13-year-old to score a bag of pot than buy a six-pack? In my experience as a 13-year-old (admittedly, this goes back to the ’70s), it was easier to buy drugs precisely because they were illegal.
As a parent, I am sympathetic to other parents who say, “But what about the message that legalization would send to children?” Well, more than 400,000 people a year die tobacco-related deaths in the United States, and more than 75,000 people a year die directly or indirectly from alcohol. Yet those substances are legal and even subsidized by our government. The number of people who die from marijuana every year hovers right around, oh, ZERO.
What a message, indeed.
Lest you think I am advocating wanton drug use, I feel compelled to point out that I haven’t had a drink or a drug in more than 12 years. I just believe that freedom includes the freedom to make dumb choices. Having been to more than one Grateful Dead concert, I have seen the devastation that drug use can bring. But putting people in prison is not the answer.
Back to our fictional oil man on his couch. You know that the only reason he’s even theoretically funding terrorism is because we have made a conscious choice to make drugs illegal. If we legalized them, taxed them, and gave part of that money to, say, the military, then when our friend bought drugs, he wouldn’t be a criminal – he’d be a patriot.
George McClure is a former stand-up comic who now works as general manager of a Denver marketing firm.
