The American people have been inundated with the coverage of the death of Whitney Houston. One would think that one of our dignitaries had passed away. It is interesting to note that as a part of the initial reporting, the fact that drugs and alcohol were probably the cause of Ms. Houston’s death were front and center.
Dr. Ron Paul wants to end the war on drugs, reiterating an old reality which is that prohibition does not work. If we take a close look at the drug industry in this country, that is the pharmaceutical so called legal industry, it is easy to ascertain the benefits to the status quo of an ongoing never ending drug war.
A healthy person living a healthy life would find it a rare occasion when he or she would need pharmaceutical drugs. If we the people were free to accomplish our own chemical balance we could do so organically for little more than the effort it takes to plant a seed and extract a substance.
In the realm of pain relievers, a cup of willow tea offers the same analgesic pain relief as does an aspirin. For more severe pain, medical marijuana has proven to be the preferred product for the vast majority who have tried it. For severe severe pain, most people could plant a poppy seed and extract their own opium. And for literally every other ailment out there, there is a homeopathic treatment and or cure that many believe is par or superior to what the pharmaceutical companies are offering.
All the drug war is accomplishing is a façade that allows the pharmaceutical companies to dominate and monopolize a portion of human activity to the enrichment of a few and the detriment of the many. Can drugs cause misery if abused? Absolutely, but the drug war and the drug laws not only have not alleviated this reality, but have in fact contributed to it.
The elite at the top are forcing the American people to finance the phony drug war on both sides. This being said, it is a war that we cannot win. Our government has become a cartel unto itself that deals in guns and drugs. Hence through our purchase of illegal drugs from our government, we finance one side of the war. And then the government says the illegal drugs must be stopped so they tax us to finance the other side of the war. And of course they are getting kickbacks from the anti-drug contractors to add to the monies they are receiving from the crime the contractors are supposed to be stopping.
Enter in celebrities like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Though their deaths are considered by many to be tragic, in both cases it was the drugs of the pharmaceutical companies that killed them, which pushes to the forefront the demand for more regulation to be enforced by more contractors.
I guess what I’m getting at here is that the alcohol cartels of old, which government officials were involved in at that time, are the drug cartels of today. People will use drugs though it is prohibited as sure as people used alcohol during prohibition. The only difference between legalization and prohibition is that the criminal competition for the black market monies stops after legalization because what has been going on in the dark is brought into the light.
Dr. Paul, quite rightfully so, believes that it is the right of the individual to decide what he or she consumes and that along with that right comes the responsibility for the repercussions.
To decide the question of legalization of drugs is really quite simple if you just push past one point of propaganda and that is that alcohol and drugs are separate. They are not. Alcohol is a drug. In fact it is one of the most self destructive drugs there is. And in looking at alcohol as a drug, one need only ask: Were the people better off under prohibition and the criminal gang-run black market it facilitated or are they better off now through the open right to legally purchase and consume?
Remember the drug alcohol is still alcohol and all other drugs would be the same under legalization. The only question is under what system will the American citizen obtain his or her chosen substances?