Babblings of an outsider

This is all so very interesting. I've been subscribing to the DRCnet Chronicle for several years now, and although there seems to be some progress happening, it's painfully slow. Of course, I do not have first hand understanding, of what exactly is happening on that side of the pond, as I'm living in northern Europe in the remotest possible location from anything resembling an open minded way of thinking. Finland, that is. Finland - alongside with Sweden - has the most negative attitudes towards illegal drugs of anywhere in Europe. I don't think we have ever had any kind of a drug problem, if you don't call a bunch of drunken teenagers stealing bicycles a drug problem. OK, so we do have an occasional hash or amfetamin arrest, but it's so very small. Yet at the same time our authorities are demanding more rights to tap phones and infiltrate criminal organizations, because, god knows, it has worked so well in the States. That's the Finnish way: if you don't have a problem, you should create one. Any discussion of decriminalization or legalization of drugs is stifled immediately, because changing the law is obviously illegal. There seems to be this fanatical opposition to anybody even hinting towards the direction that the measures we are taking to battle the horrors of drugs are disproportionate or ineffective. No, saying anything like that out loud is pro-drugs: what do you want, everybody to use drugs and kill each other when they are stoned, and using drugs is illegal anyways so talking like that is encouraging people to commit crimes. What does make me happy is seeing that not everywhere it is like that. The development, however slow, in Switzerland, UK, Portugal and even in Germany is a sure sign that things are changing. More and more politicians, police and medical professionals are coming forth with their opinions that war on drugs is simply not working. I just went to see the new Miami Vice movie. I remember watching the TV show faithfully when I was a kid. I remember the bright colors, cool music and pretty light and easy stories. In twenty years the basic theme has not changed, but everything has become more brutal, more violent, more desperate. The same war is being fought, only more money is being spent at acts that only drive the drug business to the hands of those most ruthless. In twenty years none of the targets of drug wars have been reached. If anything, we are farther from those goals than ever before. And still those believing in drug free society are blind to the effects of the war they are waging. That's why I sometimes feel so much like an outsider. I see that the war being fought is only going to make matters worse. I see that the only ones benefitting from this war are the drug lords, be they named heads of cartells or drug czars. In this war using your freedom of speach is considered a treason, and you are only free to have your opinion if it's the same with everyone else's. I don't know if I'm going to write another entry here ever, I just wanted to let all of you know, that the fight is on everywhere. I don't know about slippery slopes, gateway theories or domino effects, but I do believe, that when a change happens in one place and the consequences of that change are not as bad as the worst prophets of doom have predicted, it's always an example for the rest of us. So think globally, fight locally.