Nations should take no prisoners in the war on drugs
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Fast forward to today. The US spent over $40 billion of taxpayers' money per year on the drug war, similar in magnitude to the Department of Education budget! Yet repeat drug offenders are on the rise.
In 1980 there were roughly 40,000 people incarcerated for drug crimes in American jails. Today it has swelled to 10 times that figure, representing close to a quarter of all those imprisoned in the US. Space is running out. California is going so far as to consider the idea of releasing prisoners early.
Something is wrong.
At the federal level, laws in the US and Mexico do not carry the death penalty for drug trafficking. When it is an option at the state level, it is for drug-related crimes resulting in a person's death.
I am no law expert by any stretch, but the way the laws are written seems predicated on the concept of a life for a life. Lets ponder that for a moment.
When we spare the lives of those who peddle and smuggle illegal drugs again and again, are we indirectly extinguishing the lives of others?
The goal of putting someone in jail should be to remove for the time being a threat to society and hope that they change for the better. Obviously in the case of repeat offenders, the second goal was not met.
Drug lords around the world today are up in arms trying to defend their profits, not too different from some of the motives behind the opium wars 150 years ago.
This is a war. You might not live near the epicenter, but its effects are all around you.
In every war, there are casualties. For anyone who is foolish enough to defend this way of life, there is an unspoken appreciation of the potential to pay the ultimate price. Perhaps society should not stand in their way.
The author is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He resides in the San Francisco Bay area. li.palindrome@gmail.com
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