While Biden pretends he can fight climate change, he does little to fight drug abuse

CO2 is harmless but narcotics abuse is destroying society

Left wing leaders (and perhaps all leaders of every stripe) like to have a “crisis” to fight, even one that is imaginary, since it can polarize voters and sustain them in power. Manmade climate change is an imaginary crisis created for political gain. CO2 is harmless.

But do you see any headlines announcing serious efforts to curtail the plague of drug abuse in America? Or in Canada? Nope. What you see is “needle exchange programs” and “safe spaces” hoping to make drug abuse less lethal but doing nothing to stop its spread and possibly even encouraging it.

How serious is drug abuse in United States? The American Addiction Centre reports that 38% of adults “battled an illicit drug use disorder” in 2017. Look around yourself at the mall and think about that - if you can see 30 shoppers about 12 of them have drug problems. If you attend church and the congregation numbers 60, about 25 of them have drug problems. This is not an insignifcant problem.

Drug use among youth is massive and growing. The data are alarming at any level. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports the following:

When you see news footage of the homeless camps in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Vancouver or in dozens of other North American cities, a high proportion of those homeless people are on drugs. Canada’s government reports that over 28% of Canadian homeless people were substance abusers, mostly addicts.

The open border in America’s south is the gateway for enormous quantities of drugs to enter United States, primarily fentanyl. Hundreds of thousands of American kids have died from drug abuse, almost 1 million since 1999. This tragic loss of life is not the only tragedy that has resulted. The cost to society is enormous. The U.S. Surgeon General estimates that illicit drug abuse costs the economy $193 billion annually, on top of an even larger $249 billion loss from alcohol abuse. As mentioned in the first chart above, the total cost to society of drug abuse is an estimated $740 billion each year.

How have our leaders responded? In Canada, Trudeau legalized marijuana and the Biden administration is considering a similar tack. Many American states have already done so. Pot is often likened to alcohol as “not really all that serious”. While not life threatening, pot use has long term side affects that are concerning and encourages people to look to substances for happiness rather than to meaningful realtionships with friends and families, sports, hobbies, education, career and the plethora of activites and pursuits that make life interesting. Society is now seeing rapid growth in abuse of prescription drugs by teenagers.

My eldest daughter died as a result of cocaine and heroin abuse. No amount of support, effort, therapy, counselling or encouragement was able to break her destructive habit and, a single mother, she left three young children motherless.

Addiction is costly and leads to crime to fund the addicts’ “habits”. Aspen Ridge Recovery estimates the cost to maintain an opiod addiction is over $50,000 a year with some addicts switching to heroin which can cost from $24,000 to over $90,000 a year. Cocaine addicts spend around $55,000 a year although heavy users will spend over $100,000 annually.

Crime is rampant in Democrat-led cities in America where drug-related policies do nothing to reduce drug use and even encourage it, while decriminalizing drug possession and refusing to prosecute theft below $1,000 or other crimes addicts perpetrate to buy their drug of choice. If you are homeless, jobless and drug addicted, crime is your only option.

Drug abuse is a problem in totalitarian states such as China, but at significantly lower levels than in North America. There is a debate raging about whether the heavy-handed treatment of drug abuse works to reduce the prevalence of addictions but the data seem to support its effectiveness compared to United States, but only at the margin. Saudi Arabia has a growing drug problem despite its strict laws against drug use and stiff punishments for offenders.

In my opinion, drug abuse is a serious world issue. Targeting users has not been effective. Targeting the sources of the drugs has a better chance of success but no jurisdiction has had much success as yet. There is just too much money to be made at the expense of people’s lives.

In my opinion, democratic society is at risk as a result. Democracies flourish by providing individuals with personal freedom and free markets in which to seek economic success. Addiction limits freedom, not by imposing laws enacted by an authoritarian the state but by imposing an enormous force that compels people to disobey laws, making the laws useless to protect society.

Left wing Hollywood and the music industry is a source of the drug problem, with too many celebrities using drugs and promoting their use as “cool”. We have lost many talented people to drugs - Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, John Belushi, River Phoenix, Heath Ledger, Chris Farley . . . the list is too long to repeat in this article. Movies and music (often Rap music) that glorifies drug usage should be sanctioned, not with censorship but with hefty fines for the authors and artists who seem to think this is not harmful to our children.

Artists that think portraying narcotic drug use as “cool” are entitled to write what they want and should be protected by the free speech we treasure in democratic societies. But “free” does not mean “free of consequences” and rather than censor speech society should fine those who abuse their free speech rights in a way that is harmful, not for what they chose to write or portray but for the harm they are creating to others. As with the law of Libel, the damage can be “at large” and not require proof. If the damaging words were written, spoken or sung, the damage is done. It is a question of fact whether the words, songs or portrayal of characters in theatre or movies promote drug use. Just as you are free in society to slander or libel others, you are responsible for the damage you cause. Our libel and slander laws don’t restrict “free speech”, they just punish its abuse.

The proceeds of such fines can be used to fund greater educational resources in our school system.

One possible solution may appeal to both sides of the aisle. In my opinion, the way to mitigate this plague combines at least the following:

1. Decriminalize possession and use of all narcotics

2. Increase penalties (and include the death penalty) for importing, distributing or selling all narcotics except through pharmacies

3. Require FDA approval of all narcotics sold through pharmacies like any other prescription drug.

4. Compel pharmacies to keep the lid on prices of narcotics and license doctors to prescribe those drugs for those already addicted.

5. License drug companies to produce cocaine, heroin, etc. as generic drugs and permit their distribution solely through pharmacies.

6. Secure the borders to United States through Trump’s “wall”, more border guards, and more DEA officers.

7. Include narcotics as covered drugs on all drug insurance plans.

8. Include education on the risks of addictive drugs in school systems beginning at early grades.

In a nutshell, make it easy and less costly for addicts to get their drugs (possibly reducing related crime) and make it uneconomical and dangerous to sell illicit drugs (hopefully reducing the sources of illicit drug), while educating children on why they should avoid them (potentially curbing demand). I don’t pretend it is a perfect solution. But it is worth a try.