Politics of a New Paradigm

Most of us probably remember the so called “controversy” involving Bill Clinton and marijuana use as a student. I for one was relieved to hear him assure us that though he was curious enough to try it, he “didn’t inhale.” What a joke.

Then there were the suggestions that George W. Bush tried cocaine and marijuana, and, true to his character, he has never admitted it.

Barack Obama admits to experimenting with drugs in high school, and he says that yes, indeed, he inhaled. This is the type of “straight talk” that does in fact represent true change, and it is the way to keep your kids off drugs. Let me explain.

This blog carries my real name, but I am going to tell you that like Obama, I experimented with drugs when I was in high school, but I also admit to drug use in college, and to some degree after college. Before you damn me, I did not try these drugs alone. I have done drugs with policemen in uniform. I have taken drugs with people who were, or were to become, priests, teachers, lawyers, firemen, MBAs, CPAs, carpenters, pharmacists, newspaper columnists, mailmen, electricians, social workers, iron workers, scientists, plumbers, business owners, electricians, investors, doctors and many others whose occupations I do not now know. Just about all of them are now parents.

I have been honest with my own son about my experiences with drugs and I’ve explained the pros and cons. Make no mistake, there are pros, or nobody would take them. But when it comes to hard drugs, the benefits are outweighed by the pitfalls in my opinion. I think that honest discourse is always best, and it has worked in my family.

If you came of age during the ’70’s like Obama and myself, and you never tried marijuana, I would have to question your lack of intellectual curiosity. John McCain, of course, is from another generation when the best marijuana movie was Reefer Madness not Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke. He is out of touch with the mainstream (and man, he’s right, he is “old as dirt”). About 40% of Americans admit to having smoked marijuana at least once. Exclude people over 60 from the sample and consider those who lied about it, and you have a majority.

America is supposed to be a beacon of freedom and individual rights, but in fact, America incarcerates far more of its own citizens than any other country on earth. The New York Times reports that the United States of America houses 25% of the people who are in jails worldwide, though we represent only 5% of the world’s population. There are 2.3 million Americans in jails, and between 12 and 13 percent of them are serving time for marijuana related offenses, at a cost to taxpayers of $1 billion a year. The Times also reports that overall, there are about a half a million people incarcerated in America for drug related offenses.

Predictably enough, minorities are imprisoned for drugs in far greater numbers than whites. It is anecdotal evidence, but just about every single person that I did drugs with as a younger person was white. Consider the San Diego State drug scandal, and multiply that by the number of predominantly white universities in America. Human Rights Watch reported that blacks constitute 13% of regular drug users in the U.S., but they comprise 62.7% of the drug offenders who are serving time in prison.

The privatization of prisons coupled with the “war on drugs” has made human warehousing a growth industry within a failing economic system. Wackenhut recently built the largest prison complex in the state of Florida at Graceville. They charge the state $42.74 per diem per inmate, some 7% less than the $53 average per diem cost that is the statewide average. Guards at the facility make $12.10 an hour. So on average, the state is paying about $350 a week to house the inmates, and Wackenhut jailers are making about $481 a week. Why not offer every citizen a state job (environmental clean-up?) paying at least $400 a week, decriminalize drugs, and watch the prison population shrink by 90% overnight? If you knew you could get a decent job guaranteed by the state you would have no need to commit a crime.

You say that decriminalizing drugs is antithetical to America’s values and a risk to our fragile youth? Prescribing powerful psychoactive drugs to children is a booming business that is reaping enormous profits for big pharma. In some places, as many as 15-20% of the children have been put on Ritalan or amphetamines for what is called ADD/ADHD. I am certain that this can be cured by changes in diet, an increase in exercise and the introduction of a Montessori-like curriculum that the students find to be interesting enough to hold their attention.

2.4 billion drugs were prescribed in the U.S. through doctor and hospital visits in 2005. 118 million of those prescriptions were for antidepressants, psychotropic drugs that affect brain chemistry that possess no therapeutic value. In the military these days, it’s all about the drugs, baby. How can you kill and be killed and stay upbeat and happy? Go down to the good doctor and get your ration of Prozac or Zoloft. 17% of troops in Afghanistan and 12% of those deployed in Iraq are being prescribed psychotropic chemicals according to the must read Time piece “America’s Medicated Army.”

The reality is, Americans are plied with prescription drugs that affect their mood and brain chemistry without providing any therapeutic benefits routinely, by the tens of millions, even as young children, quite legally. Indeed, you can’t live in “Stepford” without them.

I am grateful to a piece I saw at Sirened.com for the numbers I’m using. In 2007, 168,900 people died in the state of Florida. Over 3,000 of them died due to the use of legal drugs. 989 deaths in Florida in 2007 were attributed to the use of all illegal drugs combined. Zero people died from marijuana use in Florida in 2007. Three times more people died from legal drug use than from illegal drug use.

Barack Obama has carefully and tepidly suggested that he may be for medicinal marijuana use. That’s it. He offers no profound schematic for real change. He is a lot like Bill Clinton was in 1992; Clinton seemed cool (he played sax, with shades on!), compared to George H.W. Bush. But in reality, he wasn’t much of a reformer. He was just another puppet who the people could identify with for a time.

I am concerned that young people, and black people, will be lulled to sleep by Obama and cease to be the bullshit detectors that we need them to be. By all means, be optimistic…but don’t be fooled.