A survey by the National Association of Counties shows that methamphetamine has become the number one drug problem in most communities, surpassing heroin and cocaine.
Of the responding law enforcement agencies, 87 percent report increases in meth related arrests starting three years ago. Fifty percent of the counties surveyed estimated that 1 in 5 of their current jail inmates were housed because of meth related crimes. Seventeen percent of the counties indicate that more than half of their jail populations are incarcerated because of meth related crimes.
Finally… a homegrown American industry that knows how to compete with low-cost foreign producers.
The survey notes that for every meth lab shut down, 10 new ones are created. If true, I suppose that poses a problem for Pierce County, which according to the Tacoma News Tribune cleaned up 542 labs in 2004… over a third of the 1399 discovered statewide last year.
Generally, my libertarianism doesn’t extend much beyond the First Amendment, but the utilitarian in me can’t help but acknowledge that our “War on Drugs” is a dismal failure that has done nothing to reduce addiction, and has merely diverted market share away from heroin and cocaine to other destructive drugs like meth and Oxycontin. The meth crisis is a classic example of market forces at work… if we do nothing to diminish the demand for drugs, it is near impossible to diminish the supply.
Prohibition is prohibition — it didn’t work with alcohol, and it’s not working with drugs — and it’s utterly ridiculous that our elected leaders can’t engage in a serious debate over reexamining our drug policies without putting their careers at risk. Perhaps it is too much of a shock to ask the American people to accept a legal (if highly regulated and taxed) drug industry, but at the very least we need to consider shifting some of the huge amount of resources we spend on interdiction and incarceration, to efforts that work… like education, prevention and treatment.
UPDATE:
A reader in the comment thread pointed out the following interesting tidbit from the Washington Post:
The report comes soon after the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy restated its stance that marijuana remains the nation’s most substantial drug problem. Federal estimates show there are 15 million marijuana users compared to the 1 million that might use meth.
Yeah, that’s right… those local sheriffs don’t know what they’re talking about. The biggest threat to public safety and health is pot smoking. And you wonder why our national drug control policy is failing?
More reasons to support stricter regulations on pseudophedrine sales, despite the opposition of all sorts of retailers and manufacturers.
Oh, and treatment doesn’t work, in the sense that they don’t have a higher rate of getting people off the stuff. But, it’s cheaper than putting them in prison, and there’s less needless suffering. See e.g. Mark Kleiman
http://www.markarkleiman.com/a.....ersion.php
The best way to reduce demand for meth is to reduce the number of people who use meth. The way to do that is to stop people from ever using the stuff in the first place.
Tax, tax, tax. Tax and regulate the honest, hardworking domestic meth producer and you will put him right out of business. Pretty soon, you’ll only be able to get your meth from Mexico or China where they pay their workers ten cents an hour.
Goldy, funny, you sure don’t seem a Libertarian… I think you mean you are a liberal/progressive who values his free speech. Libertarians are a lot different than that…
Treatment doesn’t work, yet you repeat the classic liberal mantra of “more money, education” will fix it.
Arrest every one of the meth guys (and make pot legal, fine). But meth and the truly dangerous drugs might hurt me. So conversatism or whatever says, jail what might hurt me, then let the pot smoker carry forward and worry about screwing up his own life, cuz that doesn’t impact me.
Life is full of choices, some choose to do drugs and end up living under an overpass, others choose not to and make something of themselves. There is more than enough being spent on education of choices, and not near enough spend on teaching resonsability/consequences/good ol’ fashion morals.
Goldy – you missed the best part of this story / Red State nightmare:
The report comes soon after the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy restated its stance that marijuana remains the nation’s most substantial drug problem.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01081.html
All Tools @ 6 “There is more than enough being spent on education of choices, and not near enough spend on teaching resonsability/consequences/good ol’ fashion morals.”
I am not sure what the distinction is? Isn’t teaching (1)responsibility for actions, (2)the consequences of those actions and (3)the utilitarian morality of those actions what education about choice is?
I think Socrates and Kant had it pretty much covered years ago. But very few people get that message.
You would think there are enough unavoidable health problems to worry about without people ravaging their bodies with drugs. Why do so many people do drugs? Is our society so bad that a quarter of the population (or whatever) can’t get through a day without being bombed out of their skulls on dope or alcohol? What is wrong with our fellow citizens? America is coming apart at the seams.
Why do Democrats hate tobacco but love dope? Really, Why? Trail lawyers love to sue everyone, so why not ban tobacco, alcohol, MCD’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Hershey’s, etc? Dems could shut down the economy, leaving the “guvment” workers, union hacks, limo liberals, and welfare scum to tax eaxh other! Atlas has Shrugged.
Roger @ 9
My gut reaction is that drug use stems from our instant gratification society. People want to be “up” all the time or they want some way to cope when not everything goes their way — especially if they want it handed to them.
I also think that many think that things don’t really have consequences. Parents — especially the very rich and very poor — pay little attention to their children and do a horrible job of raising them. And it doesn’t help that the Left — at EVERY turn — tells young people to distrust and challenge all authority.
Donnageddon @ 8
To clarify I was refering to the fact that in the D.A.R.E. program taught by schools only teaches the personal effects of drug use, and not the effect of your personal use on family, friends, and strangers. Children are being taugh that it will only hurt them and therefore responsability goes to the wayside because of a narrow view of consequences.
goldy…..though i’m pretty sure this must mean hell is freezing over……i completely agree with you 100% on everything you said.
the war on drugs is a dismal failure because as you said , prohibition is prohibition and it never works.
i think that most drugs with a few exceptions [and meth would be one of them] should be legalized and taxed. you know…if we went to a national sales tax instead of what we have now,we would finally be getting the tax money out of drug dealers anyway. they drive beemers, don’t they?
Let the indians sell it along w/ fireworks and gambling. Let them return the “favor”, at least they can financially profit from stupid white guy choices..
Posibly if the Pierce County Sheriffs department actually did arrest meth freaks instead of turning a blind eye to them because they arent revinue generating (like traffic violators) we might get a handle on things :)
I have long held the opinion that the war on marijuana was caused by Nelson Rockefeller’s divorce. Rocky wanted to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1972. He was, unfortunately for him, a divorced liberal Republican (yes, they used to exist). At the time marijuana was becoming more accepted. For Rocky to prove his tough law and order credentials and to overcome the stain the divorce put on his reputation, he instituted what were then called the toughest drug laws in the nation. He still couldn’t get the nomination and my recollection of the most immediate effect was for pot prices in the dorm to go from $15-20 per ounce to $45-50 overnight. And it was still plenty easy to get. And he started the race to be tough on drugs.
Interesting side effect- at $20 per ounce it was not nearly as strong as at $45 per ounce. The Republican get tough laws had the effect of making the product more “dangerous”. (Hasten to add my experience with that market is 20+ years old)
Hell hath indeed frozen over. I find myself mostly in agreement with xmasghost and consistently wrong (although he’s mostly right in this case.)
I’m highly ambivalent about powerful addictive drugs. Junkies steal everything that isn’t nailed down to feed their habits. They’ll always patronize illicit drug dealers under a legalized system just like gamblers do with their bookies.
You can legalize and regulate potency and that might take care of the casual use crowd which are most drug users if I’m not mistaken. I laugh when I recall what that old L.A. police chief Daryl Gates once said – all casual recreational drug users should be shot!
Anyone see the last season of The Wire on HBO? A maverick Baltimore police major herds all the dope dealers off the street corners in his district and into a few blocks of abandoned housing. In effect he legalizes drugs! His cops patrol the blocks to keep things peaceful. The result? A huge drop in homicides and assaults. Social workers can get junkies into treatment and hand out condoms to users and prostitutes. The open drug market becomes a laboratory where treatments for the ills of society can be tested and applied.
Of course at end of the season the powers that be find out what’s going on and pull the plug because they have too much invested in the status quo.
this asshole seems to like marigjana but doesnt want to admit it:
http://blog.paulschafer.com/
tools @ 12
And for all this time I thought I was the only one who saw the inherent flaw in the D.A.R.E. strategy. Let’s not forget it also can pit child against parent, if the parent is one of the many casual pot smokers. D.A.R.E. doesn’t teach that pot smoking can be similar to drinking (except the legality aspect). We have people in society that can drink responsibly, and those who can’t. Same is true for pot smokers. But that’s a taboo concept…a responsible pot head. D.A.R.E. creates little narks!
Xmas @ 13
If this country and it’s inhabitants could get over their “refer madness”, they’d see that the best way to win it’s war on drugs (still as retarded sounding now as it was 20 years ago) it could legalize the milder drugs, squeeze tax dollars out of it, and effectively take away the stigma and excitement generated by folks doing something their not supposed to do. It’s not the perfect solution, but the current method is as burned out as the junkies under the Viaduct.
D @ 20: “But that’s a taboo concept… a responsible pot head.”
Because there is no such thing. Just look at how you refer to it: “pot head.” People who have a single glass of wine with a fancy dinner once a week don’t call themselves “wine heads.”
The sole purpose of pot is to become mentally altered (killing brain cells in the process). If you feel no effect, you will keep smoking until you do. On the other hand, a single glass of wine with a fine steak requires NO alteration of mental state and such an effect is often viewed as DETRIMENTAL to the dining experience.