"All it took was saying, `Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up?'"
With that statement, San Diego County Prosecutor Damon Mosler tacitly admitted that the war on drugs has been a total failure. Clearly Mr. Mosler has no concept of irony, proudly proclaiming how easy it was to find drugs on the campus of San Diego State University.
If getting drugs is so easy, what does that say about the effectiveness of America's 30-year war on drugs? What exactly have we accomplished?
There is something truly pathetic when a government official's claims of success instead amount to a obvious admission that their policies have been an utter and abysmal failure. Have our leaders become completely immune to the power of logic? (Never mind, that was a rhetorical question...)
Not willing to leave well enough alone, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis chimed in:
"This operation shows how accessible and pervasive illegal drugs continue to be on our college campuses, and how common it is for students to be selling to other students,"
So it's "easy" to get drugs on a college campus? Drugs continue to be "accessible and pervasive"? Well that is certainly a revelation. I would consider that a clear admission that the war on drugs has failed to accomplish its objective. At least that's as I clear of an admission as I have ever heard from one of our drug warriors in confirming that their war has accomplished absolutely nothing worthwhile. Am I the only one that sees that inference?
What exactly do we have to show for our 30 years of efforts, well over a trillion dollars, and countless millions of ruined lives?
Our once-free country has the highest incarceration rate and prison population in the world, far exceeding such beacons of freedom as Cuba, Iran, China, and North Korea. Our swelling prison populations and the associated costs are squeezing state budgets, diverting money from education, economic development, and social welfare programs - programs that could actually be effective in reducing the prevalence and damage of drug abuse. And America has a $500 billion untaxed, unregulated underground economy that draws in all manner of violent criminals and gangs, who are hell-bent on protecting their share of the illicit proceeds using whatever means necessary.
America's prohibition mentality has created an ever-expanding police-state apparatus to combat this, which routinely abuses constitutional rights, confiscates private property, and drives a wedge between law enforcement and the communities that they are sworn to protect and serve. That's why we decided 75 years ago that prohibition was a horrible idea.
Truly the saddest statement was by SDSU President Stephen Weber, who said:
"These people are preying on our students, jeopardizing the health, safety and even lives of our students. If guilty, they have ruined an untold number of lives.
It would appear that he is referring to the arrested students, and not the police as the ones who are ruining lives. I suspect that many students would have a different opinion regarding who is jeopardizing their lives and imperiling their futures.
Drugs can absolutely be dangerous and destructive if abused, but it has long past the point where the dangers posed by law enforcement zeal and draconian punishment are far more damaging than the drugs themselves. The most dangerous drug of all appears to be bureaucratic power. Many are so drunk with such power that they are oblivious to the destruction and damage caused their misguided and admittedly failed crusade.
America will not solve the drug problem or the crime problem until we separate the two. Perhaps it is time we consider a new approach.