What the Prohibitionists say - And the Answers
Courtesy of : RECONSIDER: FORUM ON DRUG POLICY
These are some simple sound bites to use if you are being
interviewed...
Sound bite # 1) By continuing the "War on Drugs" we're protecting our
children.
Then why, after 30 years of failure and hundreds of billions of wasted
dollars, can virtually every child in America buy illegal drugs at will?
Sound bite # 2) Reforming drug laws will send a dangerous message to our
children.
What message are we sending to an inner city child that sees drug deals on
his way to school every day? The worst message we can send to children is
lying to them thereby undermining our credibility and the drug war is based
on fabrications, inaccuracies and outright falsehoods.
Sound bite # 3) Marijuana is a dangerous drug and should be defined as a
schedule one (most dangerous) drug.
More people die from aspirin overdose and being struck by lightening than
die from marijuana use. All drugs carry some danger, but according to DEA's
own administrative law judge Francis Young after conducting a 2 year
intensive study of marijuana concluded that, "Marijuana is the safest
therapeutically active substance known to man."
Sound bite # 4) Reforming drug laws will mean a huge increase in drug
abusers.
For the first 130 years of the existence of the United States there were no
laws whatever regarding drugs or drug use and the per capita usage was
lower than it is today by orders of magnitude. Youthful drug use was
virtually unheard of only 50 years ago. How has the "War on Drugs" improved
anything?
Sound bite # 5) All Drug users are drug abusers
The vast majority of drug users (more than 90%) use drugs recreationally or
medicinally and suffer no long term debilitating side effects. Less than
10% develop chronic problems as a result of drug use and much less than
that if you factor out the worst and most debilitating drug of abuse,
alcohol. Fifty times more people die from automobile accidents than from
drug overdose. Should we prohibit driving?
Sound bite # 6) Only bad things result from any drug use.
Drug use should always be considered carefully by adults with a good
knowledge of facts, science, and reason about both the positive and
negative effects of any drug use (this does NOT mean the irrational
unscientific propaganda and scare tactics often foisted upon the public by
our "leaders"). A great deal of good has been accomplished by proper use of
illegal drugs just as has been accomplished by the proper use of legal
drugs. There are hundreds of benefits to be derived from the proper use of
what are now illicit drugs from helping cancer and AIDS patients live
longer and reduce nausea (marijuana) to exceptionally effective pain relief
properties for terminal patients (heroin).
Sound bite # 7) The "War on Drugs" is effective. (We can win if you just
give us more money).
With all factors combined, the war on drugs has cost hundreds of billions
of dollars. Youthful drug use goes up with each increase in drug war costs.
Despite billions of dollars wasted over many decades, all illicit drugs are
easily available nationwide by both youth and adults alike. The "Drug War"
cannot show ANY positive results after 70 years of wasted resources. Does
throwing more money at it make logical sense?
Sound bite # 8) The Partnership For a Drug Free America (PDFA) is doing a
good and valuable service for the country.
PDFA has mislead the American public. Even the name is deceptive. If PDFA
wants a "drug free America" (an impossible objective) then why have they
accepted money from alcohol and tobacco companies and why do they still
admit, on their web page, to taking money from pharmaceutical (drug) companies?
Sound bite # 9) Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) is helping to keep
our kids off drugs
A recent University of Illinois study tracked hundreds of school children
who took the DARE course in the fifth grade. The study found that the
program generally had no effect on later drugs use, except in certain
instances: Surprisingly, suburban students who took the DARE course were
more likely to use drugs than their counterparts who didn't.
Sound bite # 10) We can and should continue to fight the "War on Drugs"
The "War on Drugs" has resulted in the US being the proud owner of the
largest prison industrial complex on the planet. It has failed miserably by
any rational standard. Virtually no objectively questioned individual, who
does not have a personal interest in maintaining the "War on Drugs," will
attempt to defend it. Our law enforcement and criminal justice systems have
been all but destroyed by the war on drugs.
What Reformers can say
Sound bite #11) The drug war has created so many evil, if unintended,
consequences that it no longer has much to do with drugs but rather with
exploiting those evil consequences.
Since they are all directly related to the enormous wealth which has been
created by protecting lucrative criminal monopolies over a span of decades,
the keystone of any effective reform HAS to be eventual restoration of
regulated legal markets for ALL agents.
Sound Bite # 12 Talk about "sensible regulation" Follow it up with how we
currently have an unregulated market that allows one to go out at 2/ in the
morning and buy crack cocaine cut with plaster dust from a twelve year old.
A regulated drug market much like we now have with alcohol makes more
sense. Point out that , of course, you cannot regulate that which is
illegal , so ... It works well. It's short & simple.
Sound Bite # 13) "We should regulate drugs according to their actual
pharmacological risks, rather than their political risks."
Reporters are likely to take this to mean that cannabis gets rash treatment
compared to alcohol and that heroin should be regulated more stringently
than Cannabis. It conveys a general sense of a rational policy without
being pigeonholed. It implicitly links harsh laws to exaggerated rhetoric.
And it's all pretty reasonable and digestible to a general audience.
Sound bite # 14) We must replace intensive criminalization with sensible
civil regulation."
It's gone over well whenever I've used it. It relabels both prohibitionist
and anti-prohibitionist policies, aptly casting us as moderate and rational
and the warriors as extreme and harsh. It gives a little rest to the "war"
cliches and, on our side, is neither as vague as "reform" nor as off
putting as "legalization."
Sound Bite #15: "Stop arresting users."
Here's a soundbite that's short, punchy, easy to understand, and best
encapsulates what I think most of us really want.
On George W. Bush:
Sound Bite #16: As guilty as he may be for having violated the drug
prohibition laws, he is guiltier yet of hypocrisy
It is morally wrong to ask voters to excuse his youthful indiscretions,
while he arrests, prosecutes and incarcerates others for theirs.
Sound Bite #16: There are over 13,000 people in Texas prisons for cocaine
today. [source: John Affleck, AP] How many of them are there for youthful
indiscretions?
Sound Bite #17: It is one thing to admit a brutal truth. But it is
another
altogether to come to terms with it. That is called courage, and I'm
confident that George Bush has it
Sound Bite #18&19: There are two principled ways out for Mr. Bush: He
could
1. Admit to the drug crimes he has committed, if any, and withdraw from the
race; or
2. Admit the drug war is a disaster and pledge to end it beginning with
amnesty for prisoners whose crimes were no more serious than his.
Governor Bush doesn't need to say anything. He could let his actions speak
louder than words, by picking up the phone and commuting the sentences of
prisoners worse crimes were no more serious than his.
On the drug war generally:
Sound Bite #20: How can you say we are fighting a war on drugs when we do
nothing about alcohol and tobacco, the drugs doing the most damage? Isn't
this a war by the users of some drugs against the users of other drugs?
Sound Bite #21: Talking about drugs and ignoring alcohol and tobacco is
like talking about oceans and ignoring the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Sound Bite #22: What is our strict objective in this drug war? Isn't it
odd, that no president has ever enunciated just what it means to win the
war, though every president of both parties has supported it enthusiastically?
Sound Bite #23: I don't have all the answers when it comes to drugs, and
I
don't think there's anybody who does. So maybe it's time we started to ask
some questions, instead of claiming to know all the answers
and the first questions we should ask are basic ones: How do we strictly
define victory in this war? To achieve that victory, how many more people
must we arrest? How many more police must be deployed? How many more
prisons must be built, homes confiscated, careers destroyed and families
shattered? People deserve to have answers to these questions. That's not
asking much, is it?
Sound Bite #24: I'm not calling for "legalization" because I don't know
what legalization means. But I am calling for a good debate.
What we Should debate:
Sound Bite #25: Whether you're for the drug war, or you're against the drug
war, all of us want the same thing: we want to protect public health and
safety, curb abuse, and eradicate the crime and violence associated with
illicit drug trafficking. Where people disagree and where the debate
should logically begin is over whether war is the best way to accomplish
those things.
Sound Bite #26: Ronald Reagan had it just right when he said, "Government
exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its
limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." We ought to apply
that principle to an honest look at the drug war.
(source: New York Times, April 13, 1980)
Sound Bite #27: We need to take a hard look at this war especially in
terms
of international security. What if that plane that went down in Colombia
had been shot down by "narcoguerillas"? Would we declare war and send
troops to another jungle?
Sound Bite #28: What's going to happen if another country decides to
legalize? Will we invade?
Sound Bite #29: What is the point of this drug war? Are we trying to
"punish ourselves into perfection"? Isn't that the definition of
totalitarianism? [Newt Gingrich at the President's Day Republican
fundraiser: "Totalitarianism is when people believe they can punish their
way to perfection."]
Sound Bite #30
The best way to raise the next generation of drug abusers is to put
a generation of drug abusing fathers in jail.
Sound Bite # 31
Unfortunately in many cases people tend to absorb impressions rather than
substance. This has been doubly true as it relates to the propaganda on the
drug war. A good example is the oft used phrase “ we must do it to protect
the children.” While this creates a good impression it has no substance.
Children are in fact more exposed to drugs and more harmed by the fallout
from the drug war as a result of prohibition. That is the substantive and
unassailable fact.
Sound Bite # 32
Legalizing Marijuana will make it easier for children to obtain it.
Currently alcohol is not only a legal drug, but is openly advertised on TV,
billboards, magazines, and radio, yet strict laws are in effect to prevent
child drinking. Currently it is very easy for youths to obtain a multitude
of illegal substances including Marijuana in underage night clubs and dance
halls, yet everyone under the age of thirty must show proof of age to buy
alcohol in the vast majority of adult night clubs, bars, grocery stores,
and festivals. Legalized Marijuana, through regulation, will actually
become more difficult for children to obtain than it is now.
Sound Bite # 33
"Marijuana provides young people the opportunity to interact with
individuals who use and sell other, more dangerous drugs."
Answer: This gateway theory actually argues in favor of decriminalizing and
regulating the sale of marijuana to adults. By so taking the profits out of
the street markets, young people will come into less contact with marijuana
and other drugs. (or some better or more complete response)
Sound Bite # 34
"But if we end the war on drugs (or the Rockefeller Drug Laws or marijuana
prohibition or whatever), what do we replace it with?"
Answer: If you go to the doctor to have a big ugly wart removed from your
nose do you ask him " Gee Doc, what do we replace it with?"
