Pubdate: Sun, 17 Mar 2002
Source: Centre Daily Times (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact:  http://www.centredaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/74
Author: Joseph V. Hamburger

ENDING THE DRUG WAR

There's one sure way to solve the prison crisis here and that's to 
stop putting people behind bars for using mind- and mood-altering 
drugs.

The "war on drugs" not only can't be won; the people fighting it 
don't want to win because they are emotionally invested in fighting 
what they know is a battle they can't win.

The spouse of an alcoholic or an addict is codependent, which simply 
means they are addicted to the addict's addiction. Trying to control 
their addicted spouse or children dominates their thoughts and is 
their purpose, the core of their personal identity. Of course, the 
more the codependent spouse tries to control his or her addict, the 
addict resists by using more drugs and a deadly cycle results.

On a larger scale, that's what's going on with the DEA, the police 
and the legal system. Religious conservatives paint us as 
pleasure-bent and hedonistic, but because of the Puritan ethic, we 
respond to having fun with shame that we medicate with drugs. We are 
biologically hard- wired for pleasure: It's what runs our internal 
reward system. There is an analog in the brain for virtually every 
mood-altering chemical we use for a "buzz."

We need to accept reality and understand gut-level what the saying 
"insanity is making the same mistake over and over expecting 
different results" means. For people who simply experiment now and 
then, the threat of prison has been proven as useful as Prohibition, 
particularly when the bulk of the anti-drug propaganda continues to 
flow from people who seem to miss the disconnect between their anti- 
drug rhetoric and their own use of "legal" drugs like alcohol, a drug 
that creates more violent behavior, damages more families and 
individuals, than virtually all illegal drugs.

You want to save money on the jail? Use your power as a voter, 
pressure your representatives, help create a rational, workable drug 
policy, and let's pull out of the war on drugs.

Joseph V. Hamburger

Bellefonte
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MAP posted-by: Josh