I have always had the opinion that drug abuse is a medical problem. One only needs to look at Holland to see that hard drug addiction can be dealt with in a humane manner and if not stopped, at least contained.  Why would you want to have a large portion of the population addicted to dirty street drugs?  The only thing these avoidable problems produce are complacency, helplessness, and eventually death.

Adversely, American policy, the so called “war on drugs”,  seems to work in the exact opposite direction, brutalizing and mocking addicts, sending them to prison where they turn into real criminals.  In the one week where I was locked up, I heard of more ways to rob, scam,  steal and sell shit than I had ever heard from movies, books, people and so on in my LIFE.

Not only the way addicts are treated, but also American border policy and foreign policy seems to work more towards creating addicts than anything else.  A great book that I really think you should read is  The Reapers Line, life and death on the Mexican border.  The former border patrol agent (a bit of a macho;) who wrote it,  supports drug reform and legalization.  He speaks out against the modern day border patrol and especially homeland security.

As for foreign affairs, Afghanistan’s heroin production has skyrocketed since the Americans have shown up there. Its weird, isn’t it?  Americans are always right there where the most opium is being grown worldwide. Before it was the golden triangle.  Now its Afghanistan.  So what is the problem?  Are our “leaders” idiots?  I doubt that, but the war on drugs and the hypocrisy of the Afghanistan campaign speak to this.

Written by Janusz Grajewski, Hamburg, Germany