We are students at Champlain College and we have been discussing the drug problem that exists in the United States and around the world. We have come up with a few solutions to this problem, although we are humbled to the bureaucracy of congressional action. While we have proposed methods of shifting the ways our political system handles drug offences as well as the perception our society holds towards drugs as a whole, the ultimate solution lies in the hands of the government to make the changes, through legislation, that will expose the war on drugs as a fraudulent and inane process, which is causing more harm than good within our society as well as foreign communities. However, we, as a nation -- not just those making decisions -- must shy away from extremism in this polemic conversation on the legitimacy and availability of drugs, whether medicinal or recreational, to their users.
The drug war not only costs the American people millions of dollars a year, but it also takes the lives and livelihood of our own citizens, as well as our fellow brothers and sisters in other countries. For over four decades we have been committed to this war of attrition and have made little gains towards the end goal of ending drug use. Instead, we have started to amass considerable pressure from foreign governments to end our drug war and decriminalize drugs in general. It is no longer enough to view drugs with a blanket, tabooed perspective in which we aim to eradicate the presence of these chemicals altogether. We must move to a more liberal view in which we examine which aspects of the war on drugs are worth continuing, and which need to be ended before they cause more detriment.
Let us examine the nation of Portugal and how this country has handled drug use and decriminalization. They have passed legislation that allows citizens to make their own decisions on drug use, and have effectively decriminalized all drugs. After twelve years, the country has seen a significant decrease in criminal activity as it is related to drug use. Also, because of this lax perspective, Portugal has diminished the amount of new HIV diagnoses. They have also witnessed a decrease in adolescent drug use, mainly marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. A primary concern of decriminalization on our own soil is that it may lead to increased drug use in teenagers, but this statistic shows that increasing accessibility decreases desirability and will therefore deter youth. Although Portuguese culture differs from American culture, we can use their success as a basis for our own advancement in this futile war.
Drug users are often labeled as criminals rather than as ill individuals lacking proper mediation. And these criminals continually lose legitimacy as those in power ignore the root causes of a drug addiction and choose instead to incarcerate those suffering from addiction. Filling our prisons with those who would be better served by rehabilitation not only perpetuates the problem, it also wastes money from taxpayers and government organizations-- money that could be better used to rehabilitate repeat offenders who otherwise have no option but to return to addiction. By refocusing our efforts to rehabilitate, then we can lessen the strain of overcrowded prisons, and at the same time promote a future of advocacy and understanding concerning the unwarranted stigma against drugs and their users.
Please consider pushing the policy of drug decriminalization with a focus on rehabilitation instead of imprisonment. We understand this is a radically different approach than the one currently being used, but after the continued drug war experiment people in organizations around the world question its effectiveness in a contemporary, progressive society. The positive change we want to see concerning drugs can only come about through legislation and unification within the government on this issue.
Josh Anthony, Zachary Berger, & Seth Livingstone
