America's Demand for Drug

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In my last year on active duty, I traveled to Colombia to visit their Marine Corps and military.? During one part of the visit, they took me to the SE corner of their country along the Ecuadorian border and flew me over coca plantations that, stretched as far as the eye could see.? I learned that the Mexican Cartels had taken over the cocaine trade after the US supported Colombian Government had ended their insurgency and driven their own drug cartels out of business.? Sadly, the Mexican cartels are better organized, financed and ruthless than the Colombians they replaced.? When we landed, I asked them, “What are you going to do to stop the trafficking of all this cocaine?”? Their response, “When are Americans going to stop putting this stuff up their noses?”

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Fast forward to 2024.?? While taking an Uber from a big city airport to a hotel, I asked the driver about the crime and drug use in the city.? He said it was only prevalent in a few areas, but then added, “You would not believe how many well-dressed white people get into my car and use cocaine. “?

“What do you when they use drugs in your vehicle,” I asked?

“Nothing, I need the fare.”

My conclusion, drug use in our Nation is not solely an inner-city problem.? It cuts across all parts of our country, all demographics and socio-economic statuses.

So how do we do something about this wicked hard problem?

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It is right and proper we should put pressure on foreign countries on stopping the trafficking of illegal drugs. The PRC with fentanyl and Mexico for their controlling and evil cartels.? We must also continue to work with the countries of Central and South America in interdicting cocaine, meth, opiates and whatever else is causing death and addiction in our Nation.

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And we must continue to combat drug rings, organized crime and gangs that sell this poison to our citizens, sadly, all too often, in their own neighborhoods.

But if we want to achieve an outcome that is more than a 20-30% reduction in the flow of drugs, which is at the high end of what our efforts achieve today, we have to look at ourselves and the drug culture in America.

As simple as it sounds, we would not have a drug problem if we didn’t have demand, desire, and the decisions of individuals to use them.

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Yes, big Pharma markets drugs to us, and our medical professionals are not helpful when they prescribe 30 days of Oxycodone after a surgery when maybe a week’s worth “max” is all that is required.

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So where are the infomercials about the danger of drugs?

Remember, the one that said, “this is your brain…. This is your brain on drugs.” I get it that “just saying no to drugs,” is nodanger of drugs, illegal and lt likely to work in most cases.? That said,

are we active in our schools, public and private, with health classes informing youth of the danger of drugs, illegal and legal, from alcohol and on up?

Is the corporate world and the rest of our government, to include Congress, doing urinalysis to find those who use illegal drugs, like the US Military, and hold them accountable, and/or get them treatment?

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Or “because it is hard problem, should we just through up our hands and “make it legal?” Then complain about the drugs coming into the Country.

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This is a “wicked” problem, but it appears to me that just enforcement of laws and rules has not achieved the goal of a safer and more healthy Nation.?? We need to change our culture of drug use and demand through education and treatment for those who become addicted.

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?Yes, continue to do interdiction outside and along the borders, and support law enforcement in the arrest and conviction of those who sell illegal drugs to our children and citizens.? But we need a much greater effort on the prevention of use, to include an aggressive effort on education in our schools of the dangers of drug use and the consequence of getting involved.?

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I accept and understand the difficulties of the ?problem, but it appears to me ?attacking supply and a noble but inefficient enforcement of laws and rules has not achieved the goal of a safer and more healthy Nation.?? We need to change our culture of drug use and attack our national demand through education and treatment for those who become addicted.

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