Sometimes when I’m watching a program on TV or when I’ve read something in a newspaper or magazine, what I’ve just seen or read prompts me into saying something or expressing an opinion. So ….
There was this debate on Bloomberg regarding Mexico and the drug war and where blame and responsibility should lie. Should it lie with the US government or should it lie with the Mexican government ?
Is there too much corruption and collusion with drug lords between Mexican officials or US administration officials ?
Folks, in my opinion it lies with the man and woman in the street.
Yup, it lies with the likes of you and me. Because no one forces cocaine or heroin or smack down our throats.
And let’s not forget who votes individuals into public office who, in turn, employ and promote administration officials.
Yup, it’s the likes of you and me in democratic societies.
And please, don’t tell me that there are those parts of the world that don’t have democracies because “the local government” oppresses the population.
If enough of the population believe that DEMOCRACY is worth having and, in fact, worth dying for (as Nelson Mandela did when he was put up on trial) then “the population” better get up and stand up and, if necessary, die for what they believe in.
That’s what thousands of individuals did in the Warsaw ghetto in the 1940’s.
That’s what thousands of French partisans did in the 1940’s.
That’s what thousands of other European did in the 1940’s.
No government on earth will be able to suppress a population if enough of that population decides to REALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
The power of the mass population becomes an irresistible force as was shown during the French Revolution.
So … back to the drug problem and solutions.
In my humble opinion, the first thing to do is de-criminalise all drug use. If anyone wants to pump heroin into their veins, then go ahead.
If anyone wants to snort metres of cocaine up their nostrils, then go ahead.
If anyone want to get high on opium, then go ahead.
BUT, combined with this must be an honest and real declaration of what drugs do to us.
Apart from the obvious, harsh and severe physical damage they do to the physical body, there is also the severe damage it does to other components of who we are.
It’s my belief, from what I’ve read and experienced, that we have a protective barrier between our physical and spirit bodies. That protective barrier protects us from becoming exposed to experiences and interactions for which we may not be properly ready for. It’s common knowledge that those who have taken hallucinatory drugs see and hear and experience sounds and sights and a myriad of other experiences that they’ve never before experienced. As a result they want more and more of those experiences so they take what is necessary to achieve those ends …. and so it goes until it eventually destroys them.
The sad reality is the fact that we actually don’t need chemical inducements to have those experiences. They can be obtained by other non-chemical means. And when they are obtained by those means, then ipso facto the individual will be ready and prepared for that experience.
So if folk want to take drugs, even though they’ve been told the why’s and wherefore’s, then go ahead. Because eventually, after many thousands and thousands of failed “inducements” men and women will eventually come to the realization of “what works and what doesn’t work”. They will eventually see from what’s happening around them that it’s, literally, a “DEAD end” business.
I'm sure there are many, many thousands of previous drug users who managed to get off the drug train who would be more than willing to attest to the fact that drug taking is most certainly NOT THE WAY TO GO.
And another important factor in this de-criminalisation of drugs will be an economic one. Once drugs are freely available then there will no longer be the need for drug cartels, drug lords, sky-rocketing pricing of drugs, etc.. etc… That whole cocaine, heroin and opium business will go out of business.
That will also have other positive spin offs because, unfortunately, there are those parts of the world, especially in Central America and southern Asia, where their local governments rely on the cash flow that comes to them from the illegal “export” of drugs from their countries. Those self same countries will now be forced, for their own economic survival, to rely on more conventional economic means of earning their GDP. And that should, hopefully, result in the greater upliftment, education and prosperity of their own populations.
So, to a large extent, and in my own belief, it’s all about the willingness of you and I to discover and interrogate the Real Truths about things, to put those Truths into practice, to stand up, Collectively, for what we be believe is important enough and imperative enough for our mutual benefit and prosperity and not to be bullied and persecuted by a minority which we, ourselves, may have “voted” into power.
Let’s not EVER FORGET what Edmund Burke said many years ago …..
“THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.”
.... and that's my opinion and belief. |
