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I think a lot of posters on this forum would agree that the "war on drugs" is an utter disaster and needs to be brought to an end quickly. We tried such a measure during Prohibition, and it flat out did not work. But there is another reason why the "war on drugs" needs to be brought to an end as quickly as possible...in order to fight resurgent Islamist groups such as the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad, not to mention domestic terror organizations such as the radical right-wing militias, the Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan.
I know this may ruffle some feathers on a board like this, but I believe that the United States government seriously cares more about what consenting adults put into their own bodies than what terrorist organizations, both in Iraq/Afghanistan and within our own borders are up to. They care more about an adult getting their hands on a bag of marijuana or a 20-year old getting a six pack of beer (I would consider the hysterical "underage drinking" nonsense as a part of the war on drugs, IMHO) than foriegn radical jihadists or domestic racist nutcases getting their hands on chemical, biological or (gulp) nuclear weapons. If a consenting adult wants to smoke weed, who gives a crap...the government should let them do it. As long as they don't get behind the wheel of a car afterwards, what's the big deal? Doesn't it make more sense to put forth more effort to keep terrorist nukes or germ weapons out of this country than a freaking plant?
Prior the September 11 attacks, most airport security personnel were better trained to detect drugs than terrorist weapons, which in part enabled al-Qaeda to breach our airport security to devastating effect. And I am still a firm believer that our airport security (among other places) is still in need of improvements. It's much better than it was on that fateful Tuesday morning, but it still needs to be improved. For example, are you aware that the bouncer at your local nightclub is probably better trained to spot a fake ID than a TSA agent manning an airport security checkpoint? The reason is, the technologically advanced scanners to detect fake IDs are more often used to keep a 20-year old from having a few drinks (said scanners are often government funded) than to keep operatives of terrorist organizations off airliners. And lest we forget, foriegn governments hostile to the United States (such as North Korea) could probably produce some very high quality fakes and sell them to terrorists; after all, the North Koreans did produce the "Supernote" counterfeit $100 bills, which the Secret Service would probably tell you are the most realistic looking counterfeit dollars ever produced. Regardless of your stance on the drinking age, it's absolutely absurd to give priority to stopping somebody below an arbitrary age limit from drinking a certain beverage instead of making sure that terrorists don't get aboard civilian airliners, especially after September 11, 2001.
Another major reason is that a lot of terrorist groups, both foriegn and domestic ones, use drug money to further their efforts to spread chaos and terror. The Taliban and al-Qaeda are heavily funded by the cultivation of opium and the trafficing of other drugs, and Islamic radicals in Afghanistan have raised profits that way since they were fighting the Soviets thirty years ago. Domestic terror organizations, such as the Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan, also raise profits through these means. If drugs were to be legalized and/or decriminalized, these terrorist organizations would lose a significant source of funding and could be weakened.
I think it's completely ridiculous that so much limited manpower and materiel is used to fight drugs when it should be used to fight terrorism instead. Thousands upon thousands of agents in the DEA could be put to so much better use...instead of hunting down drugs, they should be shoring up security at vulnerable places and actively seeking out both foriegn and domestic terrorist cells operating here and abroad. A lot of border security efforts are used to keep drugs out of this country, when it would make more sense to see if terrorists and/or their weapons are being moved into the country.
I think that marijuana should be fully legalized, taxed and regulated. Most other drugs should be decriminalized; i.e. still technically illegal, but nobody really cares any longer and everybody just looks the other way. Netherlands has legalized marijuana, and Portugal went for all out decriminalization for all drugs; and neither of those countries descended into abject chaos, no matter what the Nixonites and Reaganites would have told you prior it happening. The drinking age should be lowered down to 18, with an exception stipulating that it's legal for those under 18 to drink with their parents or legal guardians; the idea being to teach responsible drinking, not the binge drinking culture the 21-drinking age and its worshippers have created. One objection that many would have with this is the issue of DWI; I firmly think that the penalties for driving while intoxicated should be seriously ramped up. Some would object to a lower drinking age for that reason alone; but lest we forget, DWI is just as illegal for those over the age limit as it is for those under it. The same would go for other drugs. If somebody does drugs, they're not harming anybody else, UNTIL they get behind the wheel of car; and penalties for DWI should be much more strict, like they already are in Europe which generally has much more liberal alcohol and drug laws.
In times like this, with right-wing domestic terrorists commiting acts of violence like the shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum only about a month ago, and the OKC federal building bombing in the relatively recent past, plus the foriegn jihadists still out there that have committed acts of violence against Americans both at home and abroad in the past two decades, it simply makes more sense for the government to care more about protecting its citizens from terrorism than it does from what said consenting adults put into their own bodies.
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