Have you ever encountered a animal who is overly protective of something… their yard, their food, a stuffed animal or their “toy”. We Homo sapiens can exhibit aggression of protecting our “turf” or trying to gain turf … which exhibits itself as GREED. With all too many of us living beyond our means… protecting one’s livelihood forces some who would not otherwise be offensive or defensive to protect their livelihood and life style.
IMO.. the war on drugs is a perfect example of this concept. The Harrison Narcotic Act 1914 basically created the “black market” for MJ, Cocaine, Heroin. That black market was allowed to mature until 1970 when Congress and Pres Nixon declared war on this black market that Congress had created with the creation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) which evolved into the DEA a few years later. Initially there is abt 1500 employees at the Federal level.
In the early 70’s Congress made the robbing or holding up a pharmacy and stealing controlled substances became a felony .. just like robbing a bank.. which brings the FBI into the crimes against a pharmacy when controlled substances are involved.
In the mid-80’s the privatization of federal prison began when the publicly for profit company Correction Corporation of America was awarded the contract to run the Hamilton County, TN facility. This put in place a for-profit company who began lobbying Congress for increased penalties for non-violent offenders – like drug abuse/addiction.
Next in the mid-90’s, KY was the first state to implement a Prescription Monitoring Program, to help law enforcement to further try and uncover those that appear to be addiction or diversion of controlled substances.
Today, we have all states with a PMP law on the books, with the exception of MO, but there are only some 40 odd states with a operational PMP.
Back in 1914, along with the Harrison Narcotic Act… the court system determined that the mental health disease of addiction when Cocaine, Heroin and MJ were involved.. was a crime. With a population of abt 100 million that would mean that there was a estimated 1-2 million people with addictive personalities and thus potentially becoming criminals within the new court edict.
Today, we have nearly half of the states that have authorized the personal use (decriminalized) of either MJ or MMJ.. As is the state’s right under the Tenth Amendment of our Constitution. The Administration has instructed the DEA to “back off ” the enforcement of MJ/MMJ laws at the state level. Clearly, loosing this area of enforcement could put a dent into the DEA’s budget and staffing levels…
So as the DEA has increased their “enforcement” on prescriber, pharmacies/Pharmacists, wholesalers… result it would seem is more people using/abusing/dying from Heroin,, robbing and breaking into pharmacies. The result is that the DOJ/FBI/DEA have more people who are now criminals and justification for maintaining and/or asking Congress for larger budget and larger staffing levels to deal with this increase in criminal activity.
However, if Congress in 1914 had not created this “black market” and had not defined addiction to opiates was a crime… and we treated those who suffer from the mental health disease of addiction… there would be no black market.. there would be no need for a war on drugs and there would be no need for the DEA to exist.
There would be no need to deny chronic pain pts their medically necessary medication. How many fewer “accidental overdoses” and/or undocumented suicides would there be… how many lives could be saved. Could the DEA, in pursuing their self-centered need to exist … be indirectly causing tens of thousands of deaths every year ?
I doubt if our Founding Fathers meant for “We the People” to apply to a few thousand government employee protecting their job, livelihood and life style ?
Filed under: General Problems
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