The rhetoric of the Drug War knows no bounds. David Kurtz comments on the Superbowl ads:
Such a simplistic approach is easily (and rightfully) dismissed by anyone with a modicum of critical thought. The Colombian drug lords do not make a habit of blowing up their customers on international stages. They bleed them slowly in the best traditions of the legal drug market. Neither the Mexican mafia nor their San Bernardino County meth lab operators mail anthrax-laced letters to news outlets and senators. And militant Pacific Northwest pot-growing extremists are among the rarest of ducks. Quite a bit of the drug trade is local, and unless we’re either expanding the definitions of “support” or “terrorist,” the PDFA is putting out unsupportable and irresponsible propaganda.
Embedded in this campaign however, is a kernel of unavoidable reality. You may not already know it, but your purchase of drugs goes to support some truly awful people and acts. This much is fact, and one with which any intelligent, socially conscious person who uses or considers using an illegal substance is morally obligated to struggle. When you buy your dime bag of weed, you are feeding an economy that has resulted in robbery, extortion, and the murder of innocent people.
But the purchase of *anything* — from running shoes to agribusiness, from automobiles to energy — eventually puts money into the hands of bad people — even terrorists. Significant amounts of money contributed by every law-abiding, tax-paying citizen of the U.S. goes to support all manner of questionable regimes. We insulate ourselves from some of these bitter notions with convenient justifications. “Yes, I know we’re deforesting and destroying the soil in their country with interdiction efforts, but I’ve got to keep my kid from doing drugs somehow.” “If it wasn’t for the factory, they wouldn’t have a job. And damn, these are good running shoes.” “Yes, they’ve got seed and water monopolies in regions of famine and scarce resources, but golly wouldja look at the size of this tomato?” “Yes, the money for my gasoline goes to fund monarchies with dismal human rights records, who in turn foment just the sort of anti-American fervor that leads to flight school — but hey, it’s cheap and my Esplanade is thirsty.” The drug user is merely one among many uninformed consumers. [Emphasis Added]
Possibly Related posts (machine generated):