Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Easy solutions that don't exist Near the end of the question and answer period with Antonio Maria Consta, when he was starting to get testy and short with his answers, he said that if we wanted to solve a particular problem, that was easy -- just stop buying drugs. I was reminded of that today in a post discussing the adjustments in the crack-powder sentencing disparity, when I saw a commenter that essentially said: "It wouldn't be an issue if people didn't use crack." It's a common argument. It's true -- and it's completely moronic and fatuous, because it's meaningless. There would be no drug problems or drug war problems if people didn't use drugs. There would be no teen pregnancies or STDs or abortions if people didn't have sex. There would be no obesity if people didn't eat fattening foods. There would be no religious wars if people didn't turn to religion for answers. All true... but meaningless. Because, you see, people are... human. People will use drugs. That's a certainty, not an option. Any discussion of policy must start with that basic fact. Suggesting "if only people didn't use drugs," isn't an argument. It's the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "Nya, Nya, Nya, I can't hear you!" 9:26:32 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Photos Here are a few photos from the conference and my subsequent trip to the end of the world. 8:44:45 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Back from Louisiana I'll have lots more to say later about the trip when I get caught up. But I spent yesterday driving through Mississippi, so it was very interesting this morning to read that Radley Balko just came back from another visit there to see Cory Maye's family. Go read it. You have one man taken from his family, in the prime of his life. You have another man, also taken from his family, now losing the prime of his life. You have a son taken from his mother and father. And you have a loving father being taken from his son and daughter. Thank this war. The goddamned drug war. It is so incredibly senseless and stupid. And it'll continue to claim and ruin lives, because too few politicians have the backbone to stand up and say after 30 years, $500 billion, a horrifyingly high prison population, and countless dead innocents, cops, kids, nonviolent offenders, decimated neighborhoods, wasted lives, corrupted cops, and eviscerations of the core freedoms this country was allegedly founded upon, the shit isn't working. It'll never work. It never has. It's a testament to the facade of truth that is politics that no leaders from the two majors parties have in thirty years been able to say this. That maybe, just maybe, we're doing it wrong. Maybe, just maybe, kicking down doors in the middle of the night and storming in with guns in order to stop people from getting high....isn't such a good idea. Maybe, just maybe, the idea getting tips from racist, illiterate, drug-addicted informants about which doors, if you kick them down, will lead to drugs? Well maybe that isn't such a sound policy, either. 8:21:54 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []