Voters are disgusted by the reckless spending of politicians in Washington. The backlash is coming, so policymakers are now scrambling to do something, or at least be seen as doing something, about the enormous federal debt. Now is a good time for Congress to abolish government agencies that are outdated, dysfunctional or just unnecessary.
A prime candidate for abolition is the office of the so-called "drug czar."
The position of the drug czar was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988. It was a time of drug war hysteria. Former first lady Nancy Reagan called casual drug users "accomplices to murder." President George H.W. Bush vowed to make the war one of his top priorities. During his inaugural address, he said, "Take my word for it. This scourge will stop." The conservative firebrand William Bennett became the first czar and made headlines with brash talk of beheading drug dealers. The nation's capital was declared to be a "high intensity drug-trafficking" zone. There were raids and arrests - including the notorious trial of then-Mayor Marion Barry.
In theory, the drug czar's office was supposed to develop a long-term strategy to win the drug war and bring about a "drug-free society." Each year, the czar would call for more governmental efforts to "reduce demand" and to "disrupt the supply" of narcotics. Instead of millions, the government started to spend billions.
The bureaucracy flourished as more agents were hired and more high-tech equipment was purchased. The criminal justice system expanded to handle the influx of cases. More prosecutors. More judges. More prison guards.
And yet, millions and millions of Americans continued using drugs.We now know that Presidents Obama and Clinton were among them. Indeed, nowadays, police agencies like the FBI can only recruit young people if the agencies are willing to overlook past drug use.
The goal of "disrupting supply" has been proved farcical. Drugs are as widely available as ever. Indeed, Washington remains a city with thriving drug traffic. There are open-air drug markets in many neighborhoods. More than a decade after the drug czar went into business, a commission on federal law enforcement practices gave this blunt assessment: "Despite a record number of seizures and a flood of legislation, this Commission is not aware of any evidence that the flow of narcotics into the United States has been reduced."
More from this Washington Times commentary by Timothy Lynch HERE.
A prime candidate for abolition is the office of the so-called "drug czar."
The position of the drug czar was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988. It was a time of drug war hysteria. Former first lady Nancy Reagan called casual drug users "accomplices to murder." President George H.W. Bush vowed to make the war one of his top priorities. During his inaugural address, he said, "Take my word for it. This scourge will stop." The conservative firebrand William Bennett became the first czar and made headlines with brash talk of beheading drug dealers. The nation's capital was declared to be a "high intensity drug-trafficking" zone. There were raids and arrests - including the notorious trial of then-Mayor Marion Barry.
In theory, the drug czar's office was supposed to develop a long-term strategy to win the drug war and bring about a "drug-free society." Each year, the czar would call for more governmental efforts to "reduce demand" and to "disrupt the supply" of narcotics. Instead of millions, the government started to spend billions.
The bureaucracy flourished as more agents were hired and more high-tech equipment was purchased. The criminal justice system expanded to handle the influx of cases. More prosecutors. More judges. More prison guards.
And yet, millions and millions of Americans continued using drugs.We now know that Presidents Obama and Clinton were among them. Indeed, nowadays, police agencies like the FBI can only recruit young people if the agencies are willing to overlook past drug use.
The goal of "disrupting supply" has been proved farcical. Drugs are as widely available as ever. Indeed, Washington remains a city with thriving drug traffic. There are open-air drug markets in many neighborhoods. More than a decade after the drug czar went into business, a commission on federal law enforcement practices gave this blunt assessment: "Despite a record number of seizures and a flood of legislation, this Commission is not aware of any evidence that the flow of narcotics into the United States has been reduced."
More from this Washington Times commentary by Timothy Lynch HERE.
While I don't support the use of illegal drugs, I do see that the federal effort has resulted in one of the most bloated bureaucratic entities with the least to show for it in this nation's history.
ReplyDeleteIt's a losing battle, and one that's cost us trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars over the past five decades, with no evidence that we're going to spend fewer than the hundreds of billions we do now every year on the federal, state and local levels.
It's a problem that's not going to go away, not with the law and enforcement paradigms we now have. Supply has increased, rather than decreased, despite every effort. Drug "kingpins" and lesser dealers and distributors amount to half the people we put in jails and prisons, costing us hundreds of millions each year, yet we have an ever-growing problem.
Our federal program and its mindset are obviously terribly flawed; we are left with a deep hole into which we throw our tax dollars, a hole that deepens every moment while the problem continues to grow.
Drug policy handed down by the feds has been a ridiculous failure. The laws are overkill and don't decrease illegal drug importation or distrubution.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what we should do, but what we're doing is definitely NOT working and continuing to do it this way is the definition of stupid.
Glad I read the rest of the commentary and "the rest of the story".
ReplyDeleteJust like I thought, we're p*****g our money away on something that has never worked and will never work.
A friend of mine (no, not a drug user) sent me to this website --
ReplyDeletehttp://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/62
I was amazed at how much we spend and how many people are in prison on drug raps. And how much bigger law enforcement has gotten since the drug war started -- more prisons, bigger jails, more police, more judges, more, more, more. It's out of hand. We need to get a grip.
The drug problem has reached crazy proportions in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteWe send billions to Mexico and the rest of Central America every year and we only get more drugs coming over the border.
We send tens of thousands of people to prison every year on drug charges. We build new prisons and staff them with thousands of people. Our courts are bursting at the seams with drug cases, but nobody wins in the end.
We have a whole subculture of people killing each other over turf and product. Some get caught but the problem is even worse.
We can't catch them all. We can't put them all in prison. We can't stop the drug flow into the country.
We need new answers.
This guy gets about $170,000 a year to be a lobbyist and propaganda minister for the fed drug program (punish users, eliminate suppliers and supply).
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't worked yet, and it isn't going to.
What's the point of keeping on doing it this way?
"Despite a record number of seizures... Commission is not aware of any evidence that the flow of narcotics into the United States has been reduced."
ReplyDeleteNor is there any evidence that the current way of dealing with it ever will. We're screwed but the gov't keeps putting on a game face with our money. It tells us it's raining, but it's too warm to be rain.
The CIA makes a lot of its money by running drugs into this country through the military.
ReplyDeleteWe invaded Afghanistan largely in order to control the poppy production. We propped up Al CIA'duh (mujahadeen) to prevent the Soviets from gaining control of those poppy fields. Now our soldiers "guard the poppy fields so drug war lords can't get them".
Many believe the VietNam war was about preventing the Communists from controlling the poppy production in South Viet Nam. The military / CIA brought heroin back to the U.S.A. in the body bags of dead soldiers.
You too can know all of these facts and accusations by doing a little research. It is right out there hidden in plain sight.
Investigate Mena Arkansas, Bill Clinton, Dubya' Bush, and Immanuel Noreiaga (sp?)
Curious how the reported left out GWBush and the cocaine he used in college.
ReplyDeleteTime to end the war on drugs, because it's really just a war on Americans.
ReplyDelete