A Scandalous Fraud on the U.S. Public
I never knew, early in my career as a physiologist, much about the pharmacophysiology of recreational drugs. Even the course in Medical School taken by both physiology and medical students was minus any study of these drugs. Funny, but no one seemed to wonder why, including myself. Besides, we knew all about these drugs and their dangers from endless newspaper articles and government warnings, statistics, politicians, and judges. When the Biology Faculty at where I taught asked Professors to offer courses in science as electives for non science majors the task was formidable. Non science majors are not eager to take science courses as electives. Someone pointed out to me that since my background in physiology was medical, and from a Physiology Department out of a Medical School, I would be the perfect choice to offer a course in Physiological Aspects of Drugs and Drug Abuse. Only then did it click that strangely, I was not trained in these drugs at all; in fact neither were medical doctors either since they and I took the same drug courses.
The first thing I found out was how precious little legitimate scientific research on these drugs existed. The reason, I came to find out, was that the U.S. government, which funds most medical research, simply did not fund research in this area. When Nixon launched his War on Drugs he commissioned a scientific study, but when the commission was finished he rejected the report because it pictured a far different War on Drugs than he, the politicians, or the public envisioned. Despite all this there has been over time sufficient scientific data gathered about these drugs, their physiological effects on the body, and the reasons people abuse these recreational drugs. The trick here, in this musing, is to condense some pertinent facts which will summarize the scandalous fraud that has been perpetuated on the American public for over 50 years. Only today are slight cracks appearing in this fraud.
It all started with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which outlawed marijuana and criminalized it's possession. The record of the 1937 House hearings makes clear that Congress never was given any medical evidence on the dangers of marijuana, nor did they ask for it. Most Congressmen didn't really know what marijuana was. For many, marijuana was bad because Mexicans used it and Mexicans were bad because they used marijuana. Alcohol Prohibition was ended in 1933 and Harry Anslinger----a Dick Cheney type slime ball---was trying desperately to protect and enlarge his Bureau of Narcotics. Under his direction a massive propaganda campaign was launched with endless horror stories about sex crazed marijuana users, killers maddened by marijuana, children being seduced into marijuana use which then hooked them on even worse drugs, and workers so spaced out on marijuana that they couldn't do their work, while frequent use led to insanity. Of course the newspapers ate it right up. It scared parents and sold papers. And it started America down a 50 year road of recreational drug abuse as a police/crimminal problem, not a health/persoanl problem.
Just like alcohol prohibition the criminalization of marijuana led to underground crime gangs, violence, a massive use of police resources, an ever increasing jail industry, and just like with prohibition of alcohol, the use of marijuana was, if anything, increased. With alcohol, the generation of criminal activity and the ineffectiveness of the prohibition resulted in the repeal of prohibition. With marijuana it took a much darker turn---police resources were more and more used to intercept drug trafficking at all levels---politicians used getting tough on marijuana to get elected. Each round of elections brought tougher and tougher sentencing laws until teenage kids were ending up with mandatory 10 year jail terms. Economically and socially this Police War on Drugs generated pervasive gang activity in the poorest areas of our cities and these neighborhood wars drove businesses out creating war scarred ghettoes across the country.
Today the violence involved by treating recreational drug use as a criminal matter has created a massive complex criminal network which is terrorizing much of Mexico, a country which supplies Americans with huge quantities of marijuana and this same lawless violence is now beginning to creep into American cities, cities already seeped in high levels of violence.
Here are some undisputed facts:
Marijuana use is one of the least toxic recreational drugs---far far less toxic than nicotine and far less toxic than alcohol. All recreational drugs are used to alter our mental state in ways we find desirable. Marijuana is mostly associated with giggly-ness and/or a mellowed-out state of mind. While all of us know many people who have severe medical problems and often die from the abuse of alcohol and nicotine, none of us know people with severe medical problems from, or die from, marijuana use.
Everybody knows the lion's share of drug cartel business is with marijuana. It is marijuana which makes the illicit drug trade so profitable. We know that 90% of the guns used by the drug gangs in Mexico and the U.S. come from American gun dealers. But of course guns don't kill people. Neither do missiles, land mines, etc. People kill people. It is some kind of poetic justice that a high percentage of people killed by guns, both the killers and the victims, are members of the 'guns are good' mind set.
This Police War on Drugs purports to reduce the use of recreational drug use. After 50 years, it has not reduced recreational drug abuse or drug availability, just increased criminal activity exponentially, swelled American jails to the point where a larger percentage of Americans are in jail than in any other country in the world, and has burdened the American tax payer with huge, really huge financial costs to continue this absurd War on Drugs.
Do I use marijuana? No. Why? It doesn't do that much for me and I am too cheap. Is there such a thing as responsible use of marijuana? Yes. Is there such a thing as responsible use of alcohol? Yes. Is there such a thing as responsible use of nicotine? No. Should any of these drugs be illegal? No. Why? It doesn't work, and creates massive underground criminal activity, and the violence which comes with it. Should there be a War on Drugs? Yes. There should be a Medical and educational War on Recreational Drug Abuse. Should people be jailed for recreational drug abuse? No.
Why do some people abuse recreational drugs? They are unhappy with their current mental state and want to escape, or to alter their mental/emotional feelings at work, at a party, etc. Is it bad to use drugs to alter your mental or emotional feelings? Depends. Depends on what? Look, a drug which makes a person feel good and has no toxic effects on the body can still be abused. Many of the goals in our life are established and sought after because we will feel more contented if we reach these goals. So why then struggle to reach these goals if pills will give you the same feelings of well being? Heroin, for example, is a drug used most often by those under stresses which they cannot escape---a bad environment, being in the front line in a war, extreme poverty, trapped by circumstances into hopelessness, etc. Heroin simply makes the emotional pain go away. It also makes physical pain feel differently. A doctor gives you morphine (a form of heroin) so that you will feel differently about the pain. The pain doesn't disappear, it just doesn't bother you like it did before. If your life situation is bad, the bad life situation doesn't go away under heroin, it just doesn't bother you like it did before. And therein lies the trap. If your situation no longer bothers you as before, you are less likely to strive to change the situation. Recreational Drug abuse can have a crippling effect on your motivation and determination to better your situation job wise, career wise, family wise.
Sadly, the whole issue of marijuana and even the whole issue of recreational drug abuse has fallen into the same non rational state as issues like abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, use of contraceptives, gun control, etc. These are all emotional issues which people rarely change their minds about. It takes decades for changes to occur on such emotionally biased issues. They become emotional beliefs driven by popular or learned dogmas, fed by politicians, religious leaders, cultural enclaves, etc. If one knows the family, political, economic, religious, and cultural environment of someone you pretty much know where they stand on these kind of issues. In the case of Heroin/morphine, it took the medical field a good 50 years before they would accept giving a patient as much morphine as needed to alleviate how they felt about their pain. This is how long it took before doctors received any training about the physiologic effects of recreational drugs. How strange is that? 50 years for doctors to understand that when the pain (physical or mental) went away, the need for morphine/heroin went away too. When doctors are duped what hope is there for the general population?
I wonder if Obama will ever find the time to address the War on Drugs? He seems the best bet, of any President yet, to meet the issue head on with science driving the War instead of politicians and religious leaders. Treatment for recreational drug abuse should be available as part of universal health care for all citizens. It is avaiable now for the affluent who can afford treatment centers. Of course we all know affluent white collar people are a different breed---immune to being harshly treated for crimes dumb ass poorly educated environmentally challenged 'nothingburgers' are jailed for every day.
