Examining the war on drugs June 12, 2007
Posted by reformedville in : Criminal Justice, Government , trackbackOver a period of time I am going to be running a series on the war on drugs. I know that this series will upset some people deeply when I do run it, because it will require some thought, and really searching your soul on what is right and what is wrong. I am very much against the war on drugs in this country today.
Before everyone jumps to the conclusion that if I am against the war on drugs, I am pro-drug , chill a bit. That is a logical fallacy that many of us tend to fall into today and it is a tool use by those who wish to impose their will upon us.
As a background, to be fair, my step-brother, whom I will not name, until his resignation in 1995 ran the field offices for the Treasury department in Savannah, GA, Scranton, PA and Transylvania, VA; as well as ran one of the border patrol training schools. At age 50 he took his early-out retirement convinced that the government took neither the war on drugs (or the immigration problem ) serious and that he refused to continue to risk either his life or his mens life in false wars to look good. He , along with many others were convinced that radical change in drugs laws were mandated and that it should be brought under government /medical control as was alcohol or other type of prescription medication if we were ever to get a grip on the problem. I would also mention that he is a Christian.
One of the sources of my research is going to be Eric E. Sterling, JD. Those familiar with Mr. Sterling will know that he while playing an integral part in bringing about the changes in drug law sentencing and enforcement, he has since seen where it was both errant and has been radically abused by the federal government and is an advocate for major overhaul and reform.
I have tremendous respect for men who are intellectually honest enough to admit that a proffered solution was wrong, rather than just stick fast to their guns, the truth be ignored. Check out one question from this interview:
How did these laws come about?
These laws came about in an incredible conjunction between politics and hysteria. It was 1986, Tip O’Neill comes back from the July 4th district recess and everybody’s talking about the death of the Boston Celtics pick, Len Bias. That’s all his constituents are talking to him about. And he has the insight, “Drugs, it’s drugs. I can take this issue into the election.” He calls the Democratic leadership together in the House of Representatives and says, “I want a drug bill, I want it in four weeks.” And it set off kind of a stampede. Everybody started trying to get out front on the drug issue. … I mean every committee … not just the Judiciary Committee–Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, Agriculture, Armed Services. Everybody’s got a piece of this out there, fighting to get their face on television, talking about the drug problem. And … these mandatories came in the last couple days before the Congressional recess, before they were all going to race out of town and tell the voters about what they’re doing to fight the war on drugs. No hearings, no consideration by the federal judges, no input from the Bureau of Prisons. Even the DEA didn’t testify. The whole thing is kind of cobbled together with chewing gum and baling wire. Numbers are picked out of air. And we see what these consequences are of that kind of legislating. … Ten-year mandatory minimum, routine sentences are 15, 20, 30 years, without parole. … Then you have conspiracy, and suddenly … you have people facing 50 years, people facing either life in virtual terms or as a real sentence. That’s what’s happening. Fifteen thousand federal drug cases a year. Bulk of them mandatory minimum cases. Most of them minor offenders. Only 10% of all the federal drug cases are high level traffickers. You wonder, who’s asleep at the switch at the Justice Department? … What you have is conviction on the basis of testimony. You have drugless drug cases. You don’t need powder, all you need is the witness to say, “I saw a kilo,”… “
I know the automatic assumption is that a Christian must be for a war on drugs and how could a Christian not be? I understand the reasoning and the question quite clearly. The research to be used is not from High Times or Grown Your Own Quarterly , or from someone who just wants to get high and will look for any reason or article to support their cause. As we take a close look at the war on drugs I want you to continue to ask yourself the question of the legitimacy of the war on drugs and to ask yourself as a Christian if we are supporting a just war.
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