<Thus proving my point about the defeatests and cynics>
Just because I don't think the StickOnly method will work, doesn't mean I think there is no workable plan. In fact, I've posted several detailed proposals, to win the War by using Carrots.
My view is that we will continue to lose the WarOnTerrorism, if we continue to use the same tactics/worldview as in the WarOnDrugs.
As a physician working many years in communities with bad drug abuse problems, I have had (no exaggeration) thousands of conversations with people whose lives have been deeply affected by drug abuse. I've come to the firm conviction, that the way to win the WarOnDrugs is:
1. legalize all (yes, all) drugs of abuse. Most policemen I've talked to agree with me (off the record).
2. regulate them, to standardize purity and potency. Many deaths from drugs, happen because of the wide variability in purity/potency.
3. keep prices low enough that no black market develops. This puts the huge criminal infrastructure out of business (and incidentally stops one big potential source of terrorist funding). Nothing else that Organized Crime does, is anywhere near as profitable as drugs.
4. Take all the funding now spent on the futile effort at attacking the drug supply/production chain, and spend it on:
5. anti-drug programs that work by decreasing the demand for drugs.
6. Start by funding a wide variety of different programs, and insist that every program track results. One of the frustrating aspects currently, is that a lot of money is spent on programs, year after year, and nobody has any idea which programs work, because follow-up and results-tracking are not done.
7. Steadily prune the programs that don't work, and expand the programs that do. A Darwinian competition among programs.
8. Programs that will work will look like this (but, again, all theory must be constantly tested against experience, with a harsh willingness to abandon theories that don't fit the facts):
A) drug users will be approached with compassion and dignity. They will be treated with respect. Start by listening to them, finding out what they are thinking, what they care about, what their personal concerns are. Any program that uses coercion, force, preaching, talking down, incentives that the drug-user doesn't care about, or punishment of any kind, will not work. You can hammer away forever with your Stick, and the drug user is already in so much pain, he/she doesn't even notice. All that does, is cause more pain. Like dropping bombs on villages of starving Afghans, to make them stop supporting terrorists. WhatGoesAroundComesAround, and those Afghans will find a way to make you FeelTheirPain, the pain you caused with your Stick.
B) convince the drug-user, that it is in his/her own personal self-interest, to stop abusing drugs. There is no short-cut, to approaching them one by one, and engaging them. Forget QuickFixes. Forget HiTech-StandOffWeapons-NetWar Fixes. You have no chance of winning, unless you are willing to get grubby and sweaty, get face-to-face, and win the War one person at a time.
C) Anyone who thinks they are morally superior to a 15-year-old prostitute who just gave birth to a twitching cocaine baby, is too arrogant to be any use as a counselor, and shouldn't be involved in planning or running any program. Communication shuts down (and any chance of changing behavior ends) as soon as a drug-user senses the contempt and condescension of non-drug-users. (This, BTW, is exactly the attitude Americans typically show toward Muslim Fundamentalists, with the exact same results).
D) drug users are enmeshed in a Drug Culture, a Drug Community, and they will slide back into drug use, unless they live in an UnDrug Community that constantly reinforces an UnDrug Culture. Again, this has close parallels with fighting Islamism: they have to be presented, in a convincing and personal way, with a better alternative. (Community has nothing to do with physical location).
JS@SaveUsFromTheWarLoversWhoWouldKillUsAll.com |
