Forty-five years ago Pres. Nixon took a page out of Pres. Johnson's playbook. Since that time the parallels between the two presidents have been striking.
Johnson declared War on Poverty in 1965. Nixon launched his War on Drugs in 1972. Both wars cost trillions. Both wars achieved the opposite of their intended purposes. Both presidents left office under a cloud. And both failed wars continue to exact a fearsome price decades after their declarations of war.
We'll focus on Nixon's lost war and take a hard look at drugs, specifically the most widely used agent, marijuana (i.e., Mary Jane or MJ).
“The global war on drugs has failed with disastrous consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” concluded a study by the United Nations Global Committee on Drug Policy. Its conclusion is beyond dispute.
The battlegrounds for this war are the product-producing nations of the third world. Farmlands that once grew crops for human and animal consumption are laid fallow by cash crops of MJ. To grow anything else would be an economic loss.
The farmers sell the dried buds of the plant to middlemen, who then smuggle it across the U.S./Mexico border for nationwide distribution. Since it is illegal, estimating the amount of MJ imported into the U.S. can only be ball-parked.
Based on the number of tons interdicted, experts think it's roughly 15,000 tons of MJ annually. Going the opposite way is $20 billion in tax-free dollars to the South American drug cartels.
The cartels wield enormous influence. Like Luca Brasi they make an offer that cannot be refused: Take the gold or the lead from a 9 mm.
The cartels often form a de facto government and have had a ruinous impact on Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Bolivia and Peru. Here bribery, crime and corruption run rampant.
Oh, yes, there's one more major producer: the United States.
In 2006, an estimated 13,000 tons of MJ were cultivated domestically. To that add the 15,000 tons that were spirited in for a total of 28,000 tons consumed per year.
So almost 50 percent of the MJ used annually is home grown. Also astonishing is the fact that more MJ is grown on U.S. soil than is smuggled in by any other nation.
No surprise, then, that MJ is the number one cash crop in the U.S. easily out-pacing corn and soybeans, trailing at a distant second and third place.
Eleven years ago the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, decided to join Nixon's war. He put his nation on the front lines of the war against illegal drugs. Since that time 100,000 Mexicans have been “KIA” in cartel shootouts, and 30,000 have been reported “MIA.” Calderon is now calling for “a fundamental debate on the legalization of drugs.”
The U.S. also pays dearly for its war on drugs. Not just the $20 billion that would have circulated within our border for goods, services, and government revenue. But also $6 billion in court costs for the 575,000 arrested last year for MJ possession and $15 billion per year for incarceration. Now add $47 billion in lost tax dollars and $10 billion to eradicate the plant. Add it up. It's a budget-busting $100 billion a year, every year.
Even if you never smoked weed, it still cost you plenty. About $300/yr for every man, woman, and child in America.
This is crazy. Should we continue to pursue the same failed policy of outlawing MJ? If so, the results are predictable. Or do we try something different? Legalization? That would sound the death knell to the cartels. What they feared most would have come upon them.
“The Times They Are A-Changin'.”
Twenty-nine states, including Pennsylvania, sanction MJ for medical reasons. Eight of those states tax and regulate MJ for personal use.
A Gallup poll taken in 2013 found that for the first time a majority of Americans favored legalization of MJ while only 39 percent gave it thumbs down.
Few would argue that smoking MJ is healthful; inhaling smoke from weed or a campfire is detrimental. But then so is tobacco smoke. If people are willing to smoke tobacco, then they should also be free to make the trade-off between health and pleasure for MJ.
According to a 2017 survey conducted by Marist University, 35 million have made that trade-off. There are almost as many regular users of MJ as there are cigarette smokers.
Lastly, something to ponder. . . . .
The National Institute of Drug Abuse reported that 25,000 fatalities were caused by legally prescribed “medications” in 2014. On the other hand, The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that no deaths from MJ have ever been recorded.
Public opinion is shifting from, Should MJ be legalized?---to The mechanics of how to legalize, distribute, regulate and tax it. These are solvable problems. We did it with alcohol and tobacco; we can do it with MJ.
Sincerely,
Bob Scroggins
New Milford, PA