October 10th – Drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, where to
start? Well, tell you what let’s start by cutting out the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’
codicil; and as with the closing statement this is not my template for becoming
a crack-head nor a manifesto for change, it’s just my opinion, that’s all, just
things that occur to me; I think you will have, expect you to have, your own
thoughts, and they may collide with mine in places; let’s get a drink and
discuss it…
Ways of getting high have been around ever since the first
humans developed enough of an intelligence to realise that:
1) At times and for reasons most often out of their control,
life can be pretty shit
And
2) There are occasions of personal euphoria that demand
elongation or amplification.
In both those cases, some people turn to artificial
stimulants (so-called recreational drugs) to gain the required lift they feel
they need. Most folk do it. It can be booze or drugs (prescribed, dealt,
artificial or plant-based) and of these people there will always be some who
have an inability to recognise when they’re getting it wrong and overindulging;
this leads to life-distortion and often a premature death, certainly leads to
crimes of theft and violence and very often a death. In amongst these deaths
are a fair number that have been caused by dealers selling poor quality,
adulterated products that hurry-on the death of the taker but not before those
who overindulge to the point of illness have become a drain on the time,
resources and money of the country’s health providers.
Is the present system concerning illegal, drug-use
enforcement working? IMOHO all the wars
on drugs initiatives that’ve been undertaken have reduced the problem not
one iota, have, if anything, accelerated and increased the spread, availability
and the client-base. Thing is, politicians have little or no courage,
intelligence or wit and so fall into the trap of tub-thumping the righteous
right’s agenda and using emotive, non-helpful language every time the subject
comes up for discussion. They shout about the evil of the Afghanistan poppy
harvest (I thought poppies produced opiates and we use opiates in medicine,
don’t we?) and spray or burn the crops, thereby taking away the Afghani’s only
means of support and so alienate the farmers and then wonder why they keep mum
about the whereabouts of their freedom fighters. These intellectually stunted
politicians bewail the dreadful Columbian death-harvest
of cocaine (I thought cocaine was used as a temporary numbing agent by dentists
and for nasal surgery in hospitals) and burn and bomb the producers, taking
away the employment of thousands and condemning them to a life of poverty and
extortion. Every day dozens, possibly hundreds, of people are killed in
drug-related shoot-outs and these include guilty and innocent alike. I think at
present in Mexico there’s one drug-related killing every half-hour (consider
that fact for a second or two) and these people, often against their will or
because there is no other way they can earn money to live, are smuggling drugs
into the US to feed the habit of American buyers from every strata of society,
from politician to poor-man. So, I think we can safely say that the present
policy is falling a little short of becoming a panacea. And the UK
Snorting coke is the pastime of the wealthy elite, the middle
classes and newly rich, the people who have access to the places used by our
politicians and leaders of our so-called universities
of change. The amount of coke bought, sold and used by the people who
brought you the financial crash in one year alone (2006) would cover a football
pitch to a depth of two feet (between 25-30 tonnes of coke enters the UK
illegally each year).
The prime example is the prohibition era in the US; it’s not
just a period for Johnny Depp to recreate, haul in loads more cash and look
devastating, it was a real period in history, where the supply of the drug was
financed and supported by big business and corrupt politicians, was distributed
by cartels of thugs and policed by warped, so-called upholders of the law
(cops) who use brutality and money as everyday currency and that we should be
learning from…you know, like we have about the belief that the best way to
settle a disagreement is to start killing people…that sort of leaning curve
we’ve benefitted from so much in recent years.
We have to stop believing in the picture our so called
leaders paint for us. Of seedy toilets soaked in human excrement where the waif
injects their own urine in a last gasp attempt to get a high, and see the drug
trade for what it really is; a multi-billion pound conglomerate that is
supplying exactly what people want and whose profit goes to arming brutal
regimes and supplying greedy Western dealers with yet more gold and diamonds.
Could the drugs trade be legalised and not cause a landslide of premature
deaths and social stupidity? Hard to say but let’s sort out some givens for
starters.
1) It would ease the trade out of the hands of thugs and
brutes. Nothing to stop them continuing on selling, legitimate business and all
that, but it would put in place standards and H&S platforms to stop
sub-standard selling and unfair cartels forming.
2) Taxation (oh, yes, it would be taxed. That’s the very
first thing that governments would do) would swell the coffers of government. It
would be sensible if 33% of that taxation income was used to design and run
support programmes to help addicts who were incapable of knowing when to stop,
much like with alcohol now.
3) Understand that you have to start out with the knowledge
that there will always be addicts: always. Like alcohol, prescription
tranquilizers, body-building, cosmetic surgery, there will always be people who
cannot or will not recognise the symptoms of overuse and they will require some
kind of help and support to put their behaviour back on track (see 2).
4) Remember, if you outlawed strawberries someone would start
a black market in them.
It’s morally reprehensible to think what we have at present
is OK; it isn’t, What we require is politicians who think beyond how they get
elected next time, make the next buck or get their free ticket to Ascot; politicians
who are prepared to look further than the next election, are prepared to put
into action long term policies and do the right thing no matter who gets the
credit. Is it gonna happen? What was that sign…oh yeah;
All targets met, all
policies in place, all pigs fed and ready to fly.
What we definitely don’t want is politicians like the
intellectual pygmy, Spiro Agnew (US V.P. in the 70’s) who complained, on this
day in 1970, that the reason the drug problem was so rife in the teenage end of
society (always the young, have you noticed, and it’s never about alcohol) was
because;
Radio stations are
playing too many rock and pop songs about drugs. What’s required are people acting
in an adult and educated fashion in building and designing the policies needed
to create a safe and relatively secure way of providing people with something
they’ll always be looking for. In reply to Mr. Agnew’s rhetoric the FCC said:
If we
really want to do something about drugs, let’s do something about life... The
song writers are trying to help us understand our plight and deal with it. It’s
about the only leadership we're getting. They’re not really urging you to adopt
a heroin distribution program, Mr. Vice President.
Nicely put and, as you can see, the USA and the
UK has taken that advice to heart.
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