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POLITICS & COMMUNITY


just say no to the drug war

by harry goldstein

ganja leaf David Lenson, "On Drugs," 1995 University of Minnesota Press
Of course the prosecutors of the War on Drugs have never specified their reasons for fighting it. Here we run across another delicious paradox: even if all the allegations against drugs are true and drugs do in fact interfere with the consumerist model of consciousness, it is equally true that drugs are themselves commodities that must be purchased. What one is purchasing when one buys drugs, however, is not an object for long term ownership or a product consumable for the sustaining of life and the attendant assurance of further consumption. What one is purchasing is the promise of a change in consciousness--and possibly an alternative to Consumerism....The contention that drugs are escapist may be accurate. And those who profit from consumer culture do not want anyone to escape it. p. 28

ganja leaf David Lenson, "On Drugs," 1995 University of Minnesota Press
....the rhetoric of the industrial age still prevails, wherein a worker using cannabis is said to be unproductive, a student incapable of learning, a driver more prone to accidents. These conventions are relatively easy to maintain, but they no longer serve as accurate indicators of Consumerism's objection to the use of marijuana and related drugs. The real heterodoxy lies in the fact that cannabis's oneiric or aesthetically disinterested consciousness can momentarily detach the user from the consumerist matrix on which both the postmodern economy and its social order depend. It is for this reason that after a period of toleration that lasted through the 1970s, marijuana has been demonized anew by the law. p. 108

ganja leaf Clinton: At the Democratic convention/acceptance speech:
"And I can tell you, something has happened to some of our young people. They simply don't think these drugs are dangerous anymore. Or they think the risk is acceptable. So beginning with our parents and without regard to our party, we have to renew our energy to teach this generation of young people the hard, cold truth. Drugs are deadly. Drugs are wrong. Drugs can cost you your life. General Barry McCaffrey, the four star general who lead our fight against drugs in Latin America now leads our crusade against drugs at home. Stopping more drugs at our borders, cracking down on those who sell them, most important of all, pursuing a national anti-drug strategy who's primary aim is to turn our children away from drugs. I call on Congress to give him every cent of funding we have requested for this strategy and to do it now."

ganja leaf Dole: American Legion convention in Salt Lake City:
"...On day one of the Dole administration, we will begin a real War on Drugs. And we will fight to win. You've got to fight to win the war on drugs or you're going to lose. We must start with a plan to use our military power, particularly our technological capabilities to fight this battle, to involve our intelligence agencies including the CIA in this effort and if necessary to use the National Guard to stamp out drugs on our border before they enter this country. And we're going to get it done."

ganja leaf Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala testifying before Congress on September 4, 1996 on youth drug use:
"They [youth] get mixed messages. They get mixed messages from police departments that don't enforce marijuana laws. They get mixed messages from parents who are relieved because they think marijuana is a little safer than maybe some of the other drugs and they're relieved when they find out their kid is using marijuana instead of perhaps cocaine or heroin. They get mixed messages from those who believe in the legalization of marijuana or from those who are now fighting in a place like California over whether marijuana should be used for medical purposes. That's a signal that maybe it's safe if it could be used for medical purposes. So the message has to be clear and consistent from each one of us: that drugs are illegal, that they're dangerous and they're wrong, whether it's marijuana or cocaine or heroin or any of these new drugs that we've been talking about."

ganja leaf Ironically, all Dole's bellicose saber rattling about a new Narcotic Jihad has its roots in another war, US News and World Report says (9/2/96): "Indeed, some drug experts believe that it was the Persian Gulf war that first diverted America's attention from the antidrug effort. The government's new report also obscured the fact that drug use by society as a whole has remained essentially flat since 1992 at 12 million to 13 million participants. That's barely half of 1979's peak of 25 million." All of which begs an obvious question: if there's no war for the voting public to rally around, what's to stop you from creating one of your very own?

Harry Goldstein is a writer and editor living in Manhattan. His work has appeared in "Utne Reader," "American Book Review," "Promethean", AltX, word.com, and other periodicals.

© 1996 Harry Goldstein, All Rights Reserved.

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