The War on Drug Addicts

“Chemical hooks are only a minor part of addiction.  The other factors, like isolation and trauma, have been proven to be much bigger indicators.” – Chasing The Scream

While the official start of the American War on Drugs may appear to have begun in 1971, when President Richard Nixon coined the term, its true origins began more than 100 years ago, in 1914, with the Harrison Act, which outlawed heroin and cocaine for the very first time.  In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act brought opiates, heroin, and cocaine under federal control, yet left access to these drugs in the hands of doctors.  By 1937, all drugs, including marijuana, were de facto illegal. 

Before that time, drugs were readily available at local pharmacies, many with the same ingredients as heroin and cocaine.  Cough medicines contained opiates, while the popular Coke drink included cocaine.  Society women purchased heroin in tins from department stores.  In the 1890s, the Sears and Roebuck catalogue offered a syringe and a small amount of cocaine for $1.50, a respite from the daily grind.  Those who became addicted were mainly treated by doctors as any other illness, while most maintained steady employment.    

In Johann Hari’s 2015 book, “Chasing the Scream”, Hari, a British journalist, tells his story of the War on Drugs, beginning with Harry Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, as they sought to grow their waning power following the end of Prohibition.  Identifying marijuana as the source of racial misconduct, Anslinger and his gang eventually forced the drug war on the entire globe.  With the pretense of drugs as the source of all evil, governments intervened with soaring budgets to disproportionately blame drugs for all societal ills.    

Like prohibition, drug criminalization didn’t end the demand; it simply shifted supply to a different market.  In the case of illegal drugs, its new providers were illegal cartels that make billions in profits every year, forcing users into black markets to purchase contaminated drugs at much higher costs, leading to episodes of overdoses. 

On the law enforcement side, criminality created an increased need for more policemen and larger budgets to finance the explosion in drug arrests.  Rather than being treated by doctors, addicts were now criminals to be stalked by police and incarcerated.  This led to loss of employment, threats to family structures, while drug dependence went untreated. 

Yet, as Hari would discover, while chemical hooks are often blamed for addiction, only ten percent of users develop a problem that leads to abuse.    Most people use drugs and alcohol without incident.  Relapse following rehab, long after the drugs have left their system, suggests there is more to the addiction than chemical cravings.  Nicotine, too, is highly addictive, yet only 17 percent of Nicotine patch users were able to stop.  Instead, Hari found that childhood trauma and isolation play a much bigger role. 

In Canada and Switzerland, a new way of dealing with addicts has seen positive results.  By addressing addiction openly, people no longer have to become criminals to support their drug habits.  In Vancouver, the first safe injection sites were opened, where addicts are given a room with clean needles to self-inject.  While addicts are given drugs as long as they need them, along with therapy and help with housing and jobs, most are slowly weaned from the effects of chemical hooks and childhood trauma.  Studies show that a decade later, average life expectancy rose by 10 years, and drug-related fatalities were down by 80 percent.  Switzerland, too, has provided maintenance doses of heroin or morphine at specialized clinics since 1994, with equally positive results.

In Portugal, drugs were decriminalized in 2001, after the 1990s saw 1 in 100 citizens addicted to heroin.  Since then, drugs have been legal to possess, but not to sell.  Choosing public health over criminalization, most addicts are treated by simply walking up to a van for a small cup of methadone, and then on to work.  After a decade of experimentation, Portugal saw a reduction in drug use, fewer addicts, fewer overdoses, lower rates of children using drugs, and better relations with police.  They also experienced lower rates of addiction, as compared to other European countries. 

Back in the United States, where drugs remain illegal, there are now more than 100,00 drug-related deaths each year, with 70 percent alone coming from fentanyl and synthetic opioids.  The opioid crisis began in the 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies falsely claimed that pain meds were non-addictive, with nearly one-third of adults using a prescription opioid.  As overdoses and addiction soared, patients were cut off from their medication, forcing many into the streets to purchase unsafe heroin. The problem with fentanyl is not just the makeup of the drug, but contamination from its black market status.  Oxycodone, Vicodin tablets are also being laced with Fentanyl. 

In hopes of finding a better solution to the drug problem, 39 states now allow the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes, with another 24 allowing recreational use.  The results have seen decreases in property crimes and drug arrests.  Alcohol and tobacco, two addictive products, are already licensed and regulated.  Legalizing drugs would likewise allow products to be sold in the marketplace with similar regulations and restrictions.  A market for drugs would immediately make the sellers responsible for bad products, end sales to children, and reduce the prison population.

There are currently 50 million alcoholics in America.  While alcohol has become accepted, drugs have not.   With 70 million drug users and 1.6 million drug-related arrests, drug arrests now account for 26 percent of all arrests, with the US spending 41 billion per year to arrest, try, and imprison drug users.  Drug legalization would not only save billions in police budgets, but the US could also gain 50 billion in taxes through regulation. 

The War on Drugs has become a big government program designed to cash in on the drug trade through arrests, convictions, and imprisonment.  Instead, it grew cartels, gangsters, and criminals.  Most people use alcohol and drugs with little consequence.  For those who do become addicted, most are using chemicals to assuage the angst of childhood trauma.  For them, they should be treated for their psychological pain and allowed to go on with their lives, without government interference.