Save the Children, Legalize Drugs
Editor: Irina Alexander is vice president of University of Maryland SSDP.
Too often, proponents of the War on Drugs pose the question, "What about the children?" in a misleading attempt to guilt those who rightfully believe today’s drug policies are a dismal failure. In reality, it is we who should be asking them this very question.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Twelve-year-old Alexia Belen Moreno was afraid living in her father's house in Ciudad Juarez, where drug cartels are fighting a bloody war. She begged to move in with her mother just across the border in El Paso, Texas. Her parents agreed — but asked her to stay a few more weeks to finish school.
Three days later, Alexia was shot in the head blocks from her home in broad daylight. Authorities believe she was caught in the crossfire when gunmen killed two men riding with her in a car.
Alexia's death is part of an alarming trend of children dying in Mexico's drug wars.
Mexican officials say they don't track the number of child deaths from drug-gang violence. But newspaper tallies find nearly 50 kids have been killed this year — and a code of ethics in which hit men took care to avoid harming children appears to be evaporating. [Associated Press]
I just don’t understand why it’s so hard for people to come to the simple and logical conclusion that in order to put an end to these brutal consequences, we must legalize and regulate drugs. Once there is no black market for drugs, drug cartels will have no profit to fight for. Once there is no profit, they won’t be outside on the public streets forcing people to resort to barricading themselves in their homes, praying that the few inches of wall separating their family from the gunshots will be enough to keep them safe since that’s the most they can do. Simple as that.
Instead, we’ve been relying on policies that sound good while overlooking what’s really happening. Of course, the entire original attempt at keeping drugs away from children has been a complete counterproductive disaster. According to the Monitoring the Future study, 86% of 12th graders reported marijuana "very easy" or "fairly easy" to get, easier than alcohol. Fancy that. Think we could convince some drug dealers to start checking ID?
Poor Alexia is now one of the countless innocent victims to the War on Drugs. As if the drug war isn’t awful enough already, now it’s shooting and killing children. What kind of a person could openly support policies that have such lethal effects? I just hope one day before it’s too late, they’ll realize what they’re doing. Unfortunately for Alexia and so many others, it's already too late.
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redditChildren are the best argument for legalization
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:01pmChildren are the best argument for legalization.
Under current laws a drug dealer is already a criminal. If he decides to sell to kids he gets the comfort of knowing his customer is not a cop.
Compare this to a licensed liquor store owner. He knows if he sells to kids he will lose his license and it will cost him income, or even his entire business.
If licensed drug stores sold pot, they would NOT sell to kids. Why risk it?
I remember my school days and it was much harder to get alcohol than pot. Anyone who really cares about kids getting drugs (and is not just using kids to push their own agenda) should be pushing for legalization.
Legalization can cut down on gang-related crime
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:08pmBack during prohibition (alcohol prohibition, not the current drug prohibition) kids joined gangs. The gangs sold alcohol, had lots of money, and looked glamorous. they also controlled entire cities. Once alcohol was legalized, many gangs crumbled, their source of revenue destroyed.
Now we have street gangs financed almost entirely with drug money. Kids in poor areas see that only gang members seem to "live the life" with money and cars and guns. Legalization would remove their funding and take the shine off of their life style.
This stuff seems SO freakin' obvious to me. How do the drug warriors keep selling their form of crack? I don't get it.
'for the children' fraud!
Comment posted by aahpat on Wed, 07/16/2008 - 6:40pmWhen drug war proponents fall back on their bull dung about protecting the children I call them frauds to their faces because that is precisely what they are.
The prohibition against regulating, licensing and taxing the distribution of intoxicant drugs leaves the morals and ethics of drug sales in the hands of drug addict dealers and their predator gangster distributors. These are the least moral and most unethical people in our society. If we want to put the values of society, against the premature of exposure by children to these substances, in between children and drugs then we need to take the sales out of the hands of addicts and gangsters who have a vested interest in exposing new generations of kids to drug abuse.
The war on drugs is an exclusive tax free subsidy and license program for addicts and gangsters to sell drugs to children.
When drug war proponents fall back on their bull about protecting the children I call them frauds to their faces because they are.
The prohibition against regulating the violent criminal anarchy out of distribution not only gives terrorists huge subsidies but also gives them an asymmetric weapon, heroin, that they have been using since the 1990's to target the children of the free world. To use them as cannon fodder in the war on terror/drugs.
The campaign to flood the west with heroin and addict western children has been known by the U.S. government since before 911.
"That's part of their revenge on the world," Kerry said. "Get as many people drugged out and screwed up as you can." U.S. Sen. John Kerry 21 Sept. 2001
Newsweek even gave the strategy a name in 2003 "Silent Jihad".
"Some militants view opium as something more than a source of cash; they say it's a legitimate weapon in what they call a "silent jihad." Khurshid, a 20-year-old Nangarhar native, says drugs are Afghanistan's way of striking back at the West for sending "liquor, obsceneTV and pornographic films" into Afghanistan: "Immoral Western culture destroys the minds of our children, so it's only just that we export opium and heroin to destroy Western youths."
Flowers Of Destruction, July 2003, Newsweek
Drug warriors in congress, including Barack Obama supporter John Kerry, are using the children of America as cannon fodder in their war on drugs/terror. They know that we could regulate the heroin market out of the hands of the Taliban, alQaeda and other terrorist groups. The drug warriors 'just say no' when we try to save children.