Drug War doing irreparable harm

March 2, 2008 - 11:50PM
Drug War doing irreparable harm
Editor:
Not many people get to see the War On Drugs from the viewpoint of anundercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. I have and it is not a pretty sight. Twelve of my 20 years in law enforcement were spent in the DEA, six straight years of them in undercover operations in North, Central and South America.
Based on my experience, I can assure you that our drug war is a vile and despicable presence doing irreparable harm to all of the American landscape. Nowhere has this war presented itself as a positive policy.
The criminals involved in the illegal drugs trade are the only ones who believe that today's Prohibition is a beneficial policy. The global cartels bask in some 500 billion untaxed, cash dollars that the drug war bestows upon them each year. That much cash buys a lot of influence, and keeps that industry profitable. The losses of a few kilotons here and there are no different to the cartels than retail store face in shoplifting and damaged goods.
After a 20-year career as a professional in law enforcement I can only offer my total condemnation of this catastrophic policy. It only offers misery to the citizens of the Americas as the gangs and the global criminal syndicates gain power and wealth from black market drugs. And there are no two ways about it; this wealth is gifted to them by U.S. Prohibition-style drug policies.
U.S. drug policy needs to be a more prominent issue on the political landscape. There are far too many citizens suffering directly or peripherally from the ill effects of the drug war, whether the victims are innocent U.S. citizens like Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity,who were shot down over Peru, or farmers in Bolivia and Peru who suffer from the poisonings of coca crop defoliation.
For nearly 40 years this war has raged unabated from the rainforests ofSouth America to the urban landscapes of U.S. cities. Drugs are everywhere and every effort to root them out only exacerbates the problems of their proliferation.
We have at least one possible presidential candidate who has admitted to illegal drug use as a youth and that has not deterred him from seeking the nation's highest office. An arrest for drug possession on the other handwould have eliminated any chance at holding an elected office.
As far back as 1992, prior to my departure from the DEA, law enforcement agencies have had to adapt to the changing level of admitted dug use in their hiring practices because youthful, experimental drug use is so prevalent in today's world.
It was in 1992 that I was asked to sit on the "oral board" interviews. TheDEA was forced to employ agents who had used marijuana and cocaine in the past. And, of course, the key words were "for experimental purposes." I would say that 75 percent of the DEA agents used illegal drugs at one time or another.
There is but one way to rid the landscape of the pernicious hold that drugs - and the thugs who control them - have on our communities. We need to eliminate Prohibition, again.
One thing the cartels and gangs don't want is competition from a legally regulated industry. Legalization means regulation. Quality controls on production, product purity and age restrictions are not part of the criminals' plans.
The flip side of that coin is that there are industries with a very vested interest in seeing Prohibition maintained.
There is so much money involved in fighting the War On Drugs - from urine testing to the vast bureaucracy that runs all of the agencies and organizations necessary to keep our virtual "forever war" alive. Resistance to ending this war will come from both sides. But end it we must.
When I was working to bring down the cocaleros in South America, I believed in drug prohibition. But I've seen the devastation, the corruption and abject failure of the drug war, so I must admit to being a dissenter in this war. End the War On Drugs for the sake of all Americans. Because truly, America runs from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the cold climates of Canada's most northern territories.

Celerino Castillo III
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Edinburg




Brilliantly put. If we take away the prohibition on it guess what, the crime will go, the wasted tax dollars will go, the ruining of the American Heartland will go, and a good part of the addiction epidmic we see will go also. Take anything in American Society that is a problem, outlaw it and the problem WILL get worse. Our governnemt has proven that time and time again.



Viva Liberty!