Op-Ed How the Drug War Dies

[thegreenhand]

How the Drug War Dies​

Maia Szalavitz
The Nation
21 Mar 2022

Excerpt:

Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson was raised by a single mother in a Baltimore housing project. “Police officers weren’t seen as our friends,” he recalls. He and his five siblings were driven by “never wanting to disappoint” their protective mom, he adds—and this helped keep them in school and off the streets.

After Jackson graduated from college, a buddy who had joined the police force suggested that he do the same. He saw a chance to both do some good and pay down his student loans. He never expected to make a career of law enforcement.

Nor did he ever expect to become an advocate for the more lenient treatment of drug use. He describes himself as originally being a “traditionalist” who saw the War on Drugs as “noble and right.” Even now, he says, “I believe firmly in law and order.”

Today, however, he is also an outspoken member of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), which favors decriminalizing drugs and treating addiction as a health issue, not as a police matter.

Jackson’s personal evolution mirrors that of much of our political leadership—on both the left and the right. The change since the 1980s and ’90s is striking: Political rhetoric, at least, has done a 180. Back then, mainstream politicians were unapologetically all-in on drug policing, whereas now it has become almost obligatory to say, “We can’t arrest our way out of this.”

Full article here.

 

[S.J.B.]

The change in the last ten years or so has been unbelievable. Although the actions of activists played a large part, I think the biggest factor is the decline of the drug warriors. I'm not sure how exactly it happened, but it's just not the issue that it used to be for the fearmongers. Often the direction of these issues is determined by which side is less apathetic, and that has flipped quite dramatically.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

I think the demonization of traditional opiates/opioids as useless medicines reserved for only end of life pain, while deadly fentanyl replaces heroin on the streets, shows that the drug fearmongers are still hard to at work to make sure people have no control over how they get to feel or medicate.


But I'll admit, we're seeing some progress. And I've seen police men come out and say they think heroin (not cut heroin) should be legalized & the the dangers of it are no more than some one who drinks a shot of whiskey every night, In the long run alcohol has a harsher impact on the body & brain than even long term heroin use does.