seekaywhi

---"War on drugs" is a misleading name for this conflict. That kind of title brings up an image of a platoon of infantrymen all lined up with loaded rifles, firing round after round of bullets into stacks of gelatin capsules and glass ampules. It is certainly obvious that the drugs are not protecting themselves by firing back or running away, so drugs as such cannot be the enemy. Drugs are not good or bad. There is nothing that is intrinsically either sacred or evil in crystal of white solid or a drop of aqueous solution. As you read the continuous news reports from the battlefields you will realize that our nation is not making war against drugs as such but, rather, against the people who use drugs. It perhaps should be called the "war on drug users," and not all drug users but, specifically, those people who use drugs that our legislative spokesmen disapprove of. This disapproval stems, in turn, from their belief that these opinions are shared by those who might elect them back into office.

---However, when you look between the lines of these reports from the front, a much more complex picture becomes apparent. There really is no war at all, neither against drugs, but for all intents and purposes not even against the many, many people who use them. There are no legions with cohorts gleaming in purple and gold and there are no bullets or bombs or righteousness. There are no "God is on our side, not yours" pronouncements. Oh yes, there are skirmishes, nasty interactions between the authorities and the little people, between the police (Federal, State and local) and the largely defenseless minorities, be they dealers in dope or simply part of an unenfranchised population. Certainly, the drug motif is frequently used to justify profound changes that are taking place in our society, but these us-verse-them interactions are side-shows to the actual process that is currently underway. The phenomenon is much more sinister and far-reaching than would be inferred from the newspaper headlines, which only mention the ephemeral, drug-related events. A local arrest here and a related raid there are the reminders to the public that the evils of drug use are all about us, and that we need even stronger measures to be taken in the name of war.

---But these increasingly strong measures constitute the heart of the true threat, and it can only be through the analysis of them, and of their reasons for being and the reasons for their continuation and amplification, that the size and end-goal of this threat can be determined. What are the changes that are being made under the guise of the war on drugs? What are the real reasons for them being instituted? And of especially revealing importance, who gains power or wealth from these changes? To whose benefit? Cui bono?
---My thesis is this: The war on drugs has little to do with drugs and drug users. It exists and is promoted largely as a means to accumulate power in the form of money and in gaining control over individual citizens. This centralization of power will be at the cost of personal freedoms, and represents a dire threat to the nature of our republic. The process is well underway, and it has progressed much further than most people realize. To stop it now would prove to be very difficult. The end state will be a complacent and obedient society (the terms "Police State" and "Totalitarianism" are too loaded to use casually but they are completely applicable) with no effective Constitutional rights and with a Congress which has an ineffective voice.

---------------------------- Alexander Shulgin (from TIHKAL)