War on Drugs

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

 

One of the US's more disastrous polices. Nicely summed up in the short video. 

 

Um well discuss I guess, the vid pretty much says all that needs to be said. Money is being wasted, more lives are lost, and the end result is 0 change in the drug supply

[mido9]

I mean, let's be honest, the USA's 'war on whatever' programs really really rarely fix something compared to the peaceful approach. This was just a ploy for more corruption since wars are just more government funding, more people in jail, and more communities disrupted, and they could've stopped after Harm Reduction centers were made but kept going anyway.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

I mean, let's be honest, the USA's 'war on whatever' programs really really rarely fix something compared to the peaceful approach. This was just a ploy for more corruption, more people in jail, and more communities disrupted, and they could've stopped after Harm Reduction centers were made but kept going anyway.

Go a step further US wars in general are disasters 

[Maeriberii Haan]

Go a step further US wars in general are disasters 

 

Pretty much the same thing. didn't think they ever waged a war that doesn't boil down to "War on x"

 

idk if this is accurate, but do this War on Drugs ever actually touch the big figures?

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Pretty much the same thing. didn't think they ever waged a war that doesn't boil down to "War on x"

 

idk if this is accurate, but do this War on Drugs ever actually touch the big figures?

It moved the drug production from low level junkie in America to cartels in Mexico, so yeah it touched them, just in a bad way

 

Also lol, I was making a joke how America doesn't win any war anymore...be real or figurative

[Maeriberii Haan]

so, pretty much all their wars only ended up badly in the long run?

 

Also, with things moving to mexico, does it end up with "it's their problem now, not ours" or not?

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

so, pretty much all their wars only ended up badly in the long run?

 

Also, with things moving to mexico, does it end up with "it's their problem now, not ours" or not?

Heroin still finds its way to the US. Ignoring Mexicos increased body count now we have the lovely side effect of filling up American jails

 

So no, it still very much our problem

[Zauls]

The war on drugs is more political manoeuvring than anything else and there's clearly some other (probably corrupt) motive behind it that they don't tell us about. I know it's a cliche now, but I say fully legalise all drugs so they can be regulated and taxed and so addicts to dangerous drugs can be treated rather than arrested. The Swiss approach is really admirable.

Countries like Portugal who took this approach say the use of hard drugs didn't increase at all. In fact the only thing that increased slightly was recreational cannabis use, which is probably a good thing if anything since cannabis is a less harmful alternative to alcohol and other drugs and has almost no negative externalities by comparison.

[♪ ♪Aria ♪ ♪]

Regardless of what we say and try, it is an inevitable truth that drugs will continue to pollute the civilization.........

The War on Drugs is a bit obsolete.....

[vla1ne]

it's not that policies against drugs are a bad thing, it's that the policies that are currently in effect are what are harming the fight. right now, the penalty for drug use or possession is jail. that's not how it should be fought. if you want to stop somebody from using drugs you've got to help people establish a clean life without drugs, even if it must be done slowly. this is something that can't be done through prison, prison, as it currently functions only makes things worse in those situations. making them criminals is not helping the fight, all it does is make people fear coming forth for help. helping them come back from rock bottom is what we need to do..

[Icy]

Do I think the War on Drugs is failure? Absolutely. They c***ed it up. Bad. But I'm glad they tried and I'm glad they continue to try.

[cr47t]

We can do better than this.

[Aerion Brightflame]

The War on Drugs wasn't entirely a failure, it achieved an element of enormous political success. Because it was never a War on Drugs, it was a war against the political enemies of the Nixon (and Regan to a lesser extent) administration. 

 

https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

 

At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

 

This is from the mouth of John Erlichman, the White House Domestic Affairs Advisor under Nixon until the Watergate scandal. And I think it's safe to say the War on Drugs achieved that issue. 

 

But yeah, the War on Drugs has been an unmitigated social disaster, and is at the heart of an unbelievable amount of issues in modern society. Take the recent issues with Police and treatment of minorities - It's an issue heavily grounded in the poverty and criminalisation of African American communities as a result of the war of drugs, and in general making the Police feel like soldiers in a domestic War instead of Public servants, with Blacks and the youth as the enemies?

 

It's a terrible, terrible policy that should be put to an end very very soon, and the kinds of policies the Swiss have undergone should become more common place. Because Drug Addiction is one of the only medical issues for which you can be imprisoned for as it stands, and it is just wrong. 

[epicmemesbro]

Most drugs that where outlawed can be drawn back to to the early 1900s. It first started with opium. The Chinese where the target of the ban on opium despite most of the users being white. Can also be seen back to the 1980s where the sentences for crack vs cocaine varied to target lower income people, specifically those of color. Now that I think about it more alot of things that are banned or regulated or have a changed legal status has racially motivated origins.

[Arctic55]

I mean, let's be honest, the USA's 'war on whatever' programs really really rarely fix something compared to the peaceful approach. This was just a ploy for more corruption since wars are just more government funding, more people in jail, and more communities disrupted, and they could've stopped after Harm Reduction centers were made but kept going anyway.

Well... I dunno, we did pretty good in WWI and WWII...

[♪ ♪Aria ♪ ♪]

It takes more than strength and mind to solve this predicament, it needs conscience...