The War on People Who Use Drugs and Why Prohibition Was, Is, and Always Will Be an Epic Fail
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
For nearly 14 years, I've helped individuals navigate the complex landscape of addiction in order to achieve recovery. Nicknamed "The Casual Counselor", my approach is unconventional but undeniably effective.
The so-called “war on drugs” was launched by the criminal administration of Richard M. Nixon with one tangible goal in mind, though not one that was ever publicised at the outset, and only disseminated by contributors in his crooked enterprise long after he was planted in the ground.
It was packaged and promoted to the public with a simple promise: to eliminate addiction and crime by outlawing the supply of drugs deemed “illicit” by his administration. His primary targets? People of colour, Nixon was a virulent racist, and anti-war protesters, the hippies who were protesting the war in Vietnam in the streets of America and who, fortuitously for Tricky Dick, had a proclivity for experimentation with mind-altering substances.
Decades later, evidence proves that drug prohibition has completely failed to curb drug use or abuse, while actively generating a multibillion-dollar shadow economy that fuels violence, money laundering, the destabilisation of entire nations, ours included, and one that has ruined millions of American lives.
The systemic destruction caused by prohibition vastly outweighs the challenges associated with more humane and progressive approaches like decriminalisation or legalisation. Americans have always used drugs and will always use drugs, whether they are prohibited or not. Full stop.
The primary problem with prohibition is the “Iron Law” approach of policy in this nation. As we employ more law enforcement to fight this war, the potency of illegal drugs rises, as more concentrated chemicals are easily smuggled past our borders and through our ports to be transported and dispersed throughout the land. Demand calls for supply.
In this current chapter of profound cultural crisis, with increasing difficulties in simply surviving and supporting our most basic needs, the demand for anaesthetic relief grows ever higher.
We do not have a drug epidemic in our country. It is an epidemic of loneliness, disconnection, disaffection, and isolation that is compelling our fellow citizens to seek instant relief.
This economic reality has replaced relatively predictable drugs with highly lethal synthetic compounds. Fentanyl and its myriad analogues, the relatively new scourge of Xylazine, and various psychoactive research chemicals being manufactured in great abundance are driving accidental, fatal overdose rates to historic, never-before-seen heights.
Under a regime of prohibition, there is zero quality control of the products flooding our communities, turning substance use into a literal game of Russian roulette. Not that it has ever been considered safe to take some of the more powerful substances that people like to use, but we now live in a day and age where there is a very real and higher likelihood that your first hit of a powder or a pill could very well be your last.
Most of the people dying? They are young. They are poor. They are Indigenous. People of colour. They are the ones that Nixon, and just about every other administration following his reign, viewed as expendable. Thinning the herd. Sacrificial lambs being led to intentional, albeit accidental, slaughter, bolstered by desperation and stigma.
Prohibition transforms a public health issue into a criminal justice issue. It incentivises a massive black market, see: The Volstead Act and Al Capone for reference, where disputes are settled with violence rather than the machinations of the law.
Think about it. That BS promise, to rid our communities of dangerous drugs? Has prohibition done anything to even make a dent in the American demand for drugs? It has not even made a scratch.
Who suffers? Who benefits?
The aforementioned unlucky and devalued users pay the ultimate price of being incarcerated, institutionalised, homeless, sick from the transmission of infectious diseases, exploited, sexually trafficked, or killed dead in seeking relief.
But as far as I can see, the cartels pumping the product into our streets are doing pretty well for themselves. As are the billionaire “elites” who are wittingly or unwittingly laundering their profits through shell game shenanigans in offshore accounts in the Caymans or Swiss financial institutions.
The policymakers, bought and sold long ago, those who have heavily invested in the private prison industry, continue making money hand over fist by locking up the little fish. Small time dealers. Possession busts on personal users. The seizure of money and property suspected of being associated with drug crimes directly profits police precincts all across this land.
This has led to mass incarceration on a scale that is unfathomable. America has more citizens in prisons across the country, many or most linked to crimes associated with drugs and alcohol, than any other country on the planet.
It is disproportionately tearing apart marginalised communities and saddling individuals with lifelong criminal records that prevent them from gaining access to employment, housing, and education. This cycle deeply entrenches poverty and recidivism. In short, it encourages more of what they claim to discourage.
In contrast, framework models of decriminalisation and legalisation shift the focus from punishment to harm reduction. Look to Portugal for a modern-day example.
When Portugal decriminalised all drugs in 2001, critics and naysayers predicted a surge in use. Instead, drug-related deaths plummeted, HIV infection rates dropped exponentially, and street crime decreased as thousands of citizens entered voluntary treatment programmes and were provided with resources to serve as guardrails, encouraging the creation of a better quality of life in many directions.
Legalisation goes a step further by literally crippling the cartels, putting the clandestine Chinese fentanyl factories out of business, and shifting the market into a regulated, taxed framework.
In this framework, governmental organisations can control product purity, emphasise the restriction of underage access with higher efficacy, and reallocate untold billions of dollars from militarised policing into the mental health sector and substance and alcohol treatment resources.
Prohibition relies on the illusion and propaganda that force can suppress powerful, innate human demand. By slapping a small-time dealer or user in handcuffs, it has systematically eroded American civil liberties, destabilised communities, and fuelled a dangerous and deadly market of God knows what the user is purchasing.
Transitioning toward legalisation and decriminalisation is not an endorsement of drug use; it is a pragmatic embrace of reality that prioritises human life and public safety over an unwinnable war.
Remember, Americans love their drugs. We are the gold standard on Planet Earth with respect to our lust for pleasure seeking.
Imagine walking into a clinic and being provided with a nonfatal dose of a pharmaceutical-grade substance, while also being given an opportunity to explore resources that could encourage safer drug use or even abstinence from use.
We are a funny culture. The aforementioned example is that of a supervised consumption site, complete with mutual aid and peer support professionals helping with outreach, medical professionals on hand in case of accidental overdose or to help with wound care, and licensed clinicians on site to provide psychoeducation to users interested in change.
Imagine. It is not unlike a pub. But with helpers at the ready in case of emergency. I am not sure I ever stepped into a bar or liquor store with professional aid workers trying to provide outreach to people who are often abusing the most dangerous drug on the planet, see: alcohol.
Picture it. A healthier society. It is almost as if the people in the high seats of power do not want to help cultivate such a thing for its citizens. Which begs the question asked earlier.
Regarding drug prohibition, "Who benefits?"
Read more from Joshua Bennett-Johnson
Joshua Bennett-Johnson, Licensed Counselor & Owner of JBJ Counseling
After working for 7 years in an amazing clinic, I launched into private practice in 2018. I love my job. I can say that without reservation. Watching people rebuild their lives is something that is worth more than any dollar amount.
