DRUG WAR AND ADDICTION – The war on drugs is built on the idea that chemicals cause addiction, and we need to physically eradicate the chemicals from (society). It’s not your morality, it’s not your brain, it’s your cage. Addiction is an adaptation to your environment. If in fact the driver is isolation, pain and distress, then a policy that’s based on inflicting more isolation, pain and distress on addicts is obviously a bad idea. The goal of the Portuguese decriminalization was to say every addict needs to be given a purpose in life. João Figueira, who led the opposition to the decriminalization as the top drug cop said, “Everything I said would happen didn’t happen. And everything the other guys said would happen did.” In Vancouver 10 years after opening a safe injection room “overdose is down by 80 percent. Average life expectancy in that neighborhood is up by 10 years. Those are figures you only get when a war ends.”
As President Obama seeks $27.6 billion for federal drug control programs in his new budget, we talk to British journalist Johann Hari about the century-old failed drug war and how much of what we know about addiction is wrong. Over the past four years Hari has traveled to the United States, Mexico, Canada, Uruguay and Portugal to research his new book, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War of Drugs.” His findings may surprise you — from the U.S. government’s persecution of Billie Holiday, to Vancouver’s success in addressing its heroin epidemic, to Portugal’s experiment with full decriminalization of all drugs.
Source: Johann Hari: Everything We Know About the Drug War & Addiction is Wrong | Democracy Now!