—51— O’Shaughnessy’s • Autumn 2011 Commentary The ‘War on Drugs’ is a not a Failure By Fred Gardner many states passed “de- The leader of the , To whom does criminilization” measures. Ethan Nadelmann purposefully refers to defer on drug policy? That is the These reforms served to mol- the U.S. War on Drugs as a “failure.” It’s question. lify potential rebels. his #1 soundbite, and it’s very misleading. At the same time, the cor- It implies that the stated goals of the War far right you won’t be able to recognize it.” porate elites escalated the on Drugs —reducing availability, teenage Indeed. War on Drugs (which was use, addiction, etc.— are its real goals. When Nixon and Mitchell came into of- being conducted long be- They aren’t, and never were, as the Nixon fice in 1968, millions of Americans iden- fore Nixon gave it a catchy White House tapes revealed. tified with and supported “the movement” name). Like their liberal re- —which was not, at the time, divided into forms, its goal was to pre- The War on Drugs is a great the kind of single-issue enterprises that vent any future uprisings by success for the prison-industrial exist today. People demanding peace and oppressed and/or idealistic people demanding equality on all fronts — Americans. If our rulers’ complex, the armaments makers, racial, sexual, economic— overlapped and post-’60s tactics seem con- the pharmaceutical industry, etc. intermingled, and many saw their seem- tradictory, remember: The ingly diverse demands as one big demand: Man has a left and The Man The federal Controlled Substances Act for a democratic society. has a right—and they’re both was designed to justify ever-bigger po- The corporate elites were shaken and re- around your throat. lice budgets and staffing levels, to encircle sponded with wide-ranging reforms. They By calling the War on and infiltrate the ghettos, and to make sure hastened the return of U.S. troops from Drugs a “failure,” the DPA that the rebellions of the 1960s were per- Vietnam and ended the draft —a shrewd leader diverts attention from manently snuffed out. The War on Drugs response to the “problem” of anti-war GIs. the corporados who are di- is a great success for the prison-industrial They implemented affirmative action pro- recting the war, very effi- complex, the pharmaceutical industry, the grams in the corporate world and Title IX ciently, year after year, from armaments makers, etc.. Attorney General funding for women’s sports in the schools. think tanks and lobbyists’ of- Graphic by John Jonik John Mitchell, the CSA’s mastermind, said In response to millions of people smoking fices in New York and Wash- at the time, “This country is going to go so marijuana —mass civil disobedience— ington. DPA should be exposing the per- after a brief encounter with BHO. “When I petrators of the Drug War, not facilitating told him what I wanted to manufacture,” their cover-up. said our source, who has developed an We, the people, don’t make “drug poli- innovative delivery system for plant can- cy,” and to pretend that we do is mislead- nabinoids, “he nodded and smiled. Obvi- ing because it implies that we live in a ous enthusiasm and approval —his body functioning democracy. We live in a cor- language was totally supportive. When I porate state. The Supreme Court decision told him how many people I intended to allowing unlimited, concealed corporate employ, his smile got even bigger and he funding in elections made it official. gave me a slap on the back.” Dr. David Bearman has published an op- The aspiring manufacturer came away ed in the Santa Barbara Independent that encouraged. But he never did get the ap- echoes the DPA line. It begins, “The Amer- provals needed to advance his project, ican Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine and DEA raids against phytocannabinoid rejects the failed U.S. drug war...” producers have escalated since he got the Bearman extends the “failure” image by Presidential backslap. describing marijuana prohibition as an “un- To whom does Barack Obama defer on intended consequence.” He writes, “The drug policy? That is the question. many unintended negative consequences In the early 20th century, an astronomer of our current drug laws include (but are named Lowell reasoned that Neptune’s not limited to) putting barriers in the way path around the sun was being altered by President Richard Nixon gives Elvis Presley cufflinks in the oval office as Egil of legitimate medical use of ...” the gravitational force of an unseen mass. “Bud” Krogh looks on. Presley had written Nixon a six-page letter volunteering Does he really think that Richard Nix- This led to an intensive search of the skies to serve as a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous on intended sick people to have access to and the discovery of Pluto. Drugs, the predecessor to the DEA. Krogh, a young lawyer on the White House staff, marijuana but some lawyer under Mitchell What unseen mass is pulling President played a key role in drafting the Controlled Substances Act. He subsequently did screwed up and put it on Schedule I? Obama from his expected orbit? Reform- time for his role in the Watergate cover-up, expressed contrition, and had a long, “It is time for the President to be a man ers need to conduct an intensive search respectable career practicing law in state. of his word,” Bearman declares —as if of the skies above Columbia University, Obama’s disappointing decisions were a Phoenix House, the Pentagon, the Patton function of character rather than political Boggs offices in Washington, and other Who Loses if the Drug War Ends? subservience to Wall Street. likely sources of gravitational pull. They Barack Obama, personally, understands might discover influential Plutocrats, well But, as Jack Cole, who spent 26 years As President Obama’s drug czar, Gil marijuana and appreciates marijuana. That paid by Big PhRMA in recognition of their in policing narcotics in New Jersey and Kerlikowske, put it in July 2009, “Le- was the strong impression of a sensible man great, ongoing success. galization is not in my vocabulary nor is now the executive director of Law is it in the president’s.” Enforcement against Drug Prohibition, To understand why, it is helpful to ask stressed, “When you train your police Linnaeus on Sinsemilla who wins and who loses from legaliza- to go to war, they’ve got to have an en- “In the month of April, I sowed the seeds of hemp (Cannabis) in two different pots. tion. The losers, not necessarily in order emy.” The young plants came up plentifully... I placed each by the window, but in of importance, would include U.S. Im- Cole considers the War on Drugs a different and remote compartments. In one of them migration and Customs Enforcement, “terrible metaphor” for “policing in I permitted the male and female plants to remain the DEA, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI, a democratic society.” Terrible, alas, together, to flower and bear fruit, which ripened the ATF, the IRS, state and local po- but substitute “neoliberal” for “demo- in July... From the other, however, I removed all lice forces, the U.S. Coast Guard, the cratic,” and it is nothing if not apt. Pre- the male plants, as soon as they were old enough U.S. armed forces, to name only some dictably, Obama and Kerlikowske have for me to distinguish them from the females. The of the agencies whose budgets depend dropped the nomenclature, but the poli- remaining females grew very well, and presented on the drug war for funding, as well as cies remain intact. their long pistilla in great abundance, these flowers their counterparts in U.S. client states —Forrest Hylton in Counterpunch continuing a very long time, as if in expectation of throughout the Americas; arms manu- their mates... It was certainly a beautiful and truly facturers like Sikorsky Helicopters; admirable spectacle, to see the unimpregnated large pharmaceutical companies like females preserve their pistilla so long green and Pfizer; suppliers of chemicals for fumi- flourishing, not permitting them to fade, till they gation like Monsanto; the banking sec- had been for a very considerable time exploded, in tor as well as off-shore tax havens; the vain, to access the male pollen...” Republican Party; along with warlords, —From “A Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants.” gangs and gangsters. Translated from the Latin of Linnaeus by James The clearest winners would be con- Edward Smith, F.R.S., into English and published sumers, direct producers, and societies in 1786, pages 32-35. I thank Michael Horowitz for that would be less militarized, less car- bringing this rare document to my attention. ceral, less moralizing, and would have —Martin A. Lee stronger public health and education systems. The highest killer on the planet is stress, and so many people medicate themselves in one way or another. But the best medicine for stress, if you have to take something, is pot.” —Willie Nelson