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In 2000, George W. Bush ran for the Presidency as a Republican under the banner of "compassionate conservatism." However, with respect to the War on Drugs, his actions and his words never met during his time in the White House, as he decided to stay the failed course charted by his predecessors. 2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul is correct when he speaks to the fact that there is nothing compassionate or conservative about the continuation of America's failed War on Drugs.

By most surveys taken and estimates made, drug use has remained at steady levels since the War on Drugs was launched in the 1970s and even before that. To be sure, there are occasional fluctuations here and there depending on various trends such as the rise and decline in popularity of one substance versus another. Each year the U.S. increases the federal budget for the DEA and other anti-drug efforts such as television advertisements and DARE programs in the public schools, yet drugs of all types are readily available all over the nation.

Ron Paul understands this with a clarity that seems missing from many of the other candidates in both political parties. In one of Paul's writings, he noted that:

"For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government police powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy."

The drug warriors are tied to the idea that criminal justice enforcement is the only solution to the problem. This narrow and simplistic view fails to take into account the myriad situations under which drugs are taken by the American public. What's the difference between someone who unwinds and relaxes with a glass of wine or scotch and someone who unwinds and relaxes by smoking a little marijuana? According to federal estimates, 100,000 individuals die prematurely every year from alcohol. Not a single human on record has ever died from a marijuana overdose, and drug deaths in general are far fewer in number than alcohol and tobacco deaths. Yet that marijuana user, depending on where he resides, could be subject to harsh criminal sanctions.

Sensible education, harm reduction, and voluntary treatment for those who are truly addicted should be the policy. Drug use and abuse has no place within the criminal justice system. True drug abuse and addiction is a public health issue. Those who use drugs recreationally, the same way millions of Americans drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, should be of no concern to the government in a free society. Our current policies fail to make any distinction between drug use and drug abuse, and that is a serious problem. Under the leadership of a true compassionate conservative like Dr. Ron Paul, those suffering from drug addiction would get the help they need through non-coerced rehabilitation that seeks to help the individual get clean, not punish him for his addiction. Getting clean of one's addiction should be a personal choice. It is not something the government has any right to force the individual to undergo. We don't force people in the U.S. to get mandatory treatment if they eat too much fast food, smoke too many cigarettes, drink too much alcohol, watch too much pornography, and so on, yet for some these are all addictions just as drugs are. And, by every estimate, fully funding drug treatment and counseling programs across the nation for those who need them would cost far less than we dish out in tax dollars each year to feed, give medical care to, and house non-violent drug users.

The drug warriors claim that the establishment of so-called Drug Courts is a more appropriate method of dealing with drug issues. The problem is that they are still operating from the premise that the use of drugs is a criminal justice matter. Drug Courts are set up so that first and second offenders are kept out of the prison system. This is simply an exercise in futility. Drug Courts are not a solution because, again, they are coercive. They grow bureaucracy further, prevent judges from hearing real cases that need to be adjudicated, and force participants to undergo mandatory drug testing. As soon as the drug user fails a test, he lands right back in the prison system.

The drug warriors act as if most drugs are completely unsafe for consumption and never had a legitimate purpose. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only are many currently illegal drugs not as harmful as some like to claim, most had recognized medical and therapeutic uses before they were criminalized. MDMA, the drug known recreationally as Ecstasy, is just one example. MDMA was used for years by psychiatrists to help patients open up and discuss their feelings with greater ease. Many individuals who experienced severe life trauma such as victims of sexual assault and abuse were finally able to face their emotions and deal with the pain of their past with the help of this drug. Once MDMA caught on as a recreational drug taken at social gatherings, parties, and nightclubs across America, the government stepped in and had it designated a controlled substance with no recognized value. Today, things have almost come full circle, with the federal government acknowledging that maybe it is useful after all. Right now, FDA-approved studies are underway where researchers are administering MDMA to returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to help them deal with their emotions and talk about the horrors they experienced. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has a wealth of information on MDMA, including physicians who refute the inaccurate portrayal of MDMA painted by the federal government.

Marijuana is another recreational drug that has a legitimate place in medicine. Medical marijuana is a hotly debated topic, as states across the nation move to lift restrictions on marijuana possession and consumption by those who are terminally ill or suffering from debilitating physical pain. This is an issue that belongs within the states. Ron Paul is one of the few candidates who has stated unequivocally that he will end all DEA raids on medical marijuana clinics and medical marijuana users. Dr. Paul's response to a medical marijuana patient in New Hampshire on November 9, 2007 said it all: There is nothing compassionate about rounding up people who are dying of cancer or AIDS and throwing them in prison. Patients living in states where marijuana is legal should be free to exercise control over their own bodies. DEA raids on medical marijuana users are a tremendous waste of federal tax dollars. The drug warriors will claim that marijuana should not be allowed for pain relief and appetite stimulation, and that sick patients should be prescribed pharmaceutical drugs like Marinol instead. This is a losing argument because it is simply replacing one drug with another. And, let's face it, if a doctor gives you six months to live, would you rather take more pills or would you prefer to relax on your couch and smoke a joint?

The drug warriors have mastered the dissemination of false information to scare the public about drugs in America. They argue that if decriminalization or legalization were to occur, drug use and violent crime would skyrocket. However, just the opposite is true. Those who do not use drugs to begin with will not start using them just because they are no longer criminalized. Alcohol drinking levels were in fact much higher during alcohol prohibition than after the law was repealed and alcohol legalized. If you tell someone they can’t do something, they are going to want to do it more.

Under our current system, crime, violence, and drugs go hand in hand. As a result of drug criminalization, gang violence in America has skyrocketed as groups of individuals wage war with each other for territorial control of the lucrative drug trade. Addicts on the street often commit robbery and other crimes in order to get the money needed to pay for the drugs they’re hooked on. The great economist and conservative thinker Milton Friedman pointed out that, in a free-market scenario, drugs that are now illegal would be easily affordable and obtainable without addicts inflicting harm on anyone else’s person or property. The day that U.S. politicians face reality and declare an end to the War on Drugs, the crime rate will plummet in a way the nation has never witnessed before.

The drug warriors want the public frightened at the thought of drugged drivers operating cars on the roads. The only problem is that the drugged drivers are already there. Millions of people drive each day on cold and flu medicines, anti-histamines, Prozac, Ritalin, and a host of other pharmaceuticals. Is that somehow alright simply because a doctor wrote them the prescription or because they bought it off the supermarket shelf? According to a recent article in Slate, there isn’t much difference in terms of physical effects between an individual taking the pharmaceutical drug Ritalin and someone using Cocaine. Both Ritalin and Cocaine produce the same effects in the body when ingested. The only difference is that one is prescribed in droves by physicians and the other is considered a street drug. As the author points out, this is because the pharmaceutical industry has developed a litany of substitutes for illegal drugs in order to treat depression, anxiety, and pain — real conditions that affect real people every day. Anyone who believes that a drug free society is achievable is sadly fooling themselves.

When they denounce easing criminal sanctions on drugs here at home, the drug warriors disapprovingly point to European nations where they perceive drug laws to be more relaxed. However, for the most part, the drug policies of most European nations aren't much more advanced than our own. Places like Holland are often cited as being tolerant of drug use, yet most drugs other than marijuana are still illegal there.

Meanwhile, as Ron Paul has rightly decried, the federal government here in the U.S. has squandered enormous financial resources going after pain management doctors who prescribe drugs like OxyContin to individuals suffering from chronic, debilitating pain. Here's how Congressman Paul described the situation in a column he authored back in May of 2004:

"When we talk about the federal war on drugs, most people conjure up visions of sinister South American drug cartels or violent urban street gangs. The emerging face of the drug war, however, is not a gangster or a junkie: It's your friendly personal physician in a white coat. Faced with their ongoing failure to curtail the illegal drug trade, federal drug agencies have found an easier target in ordinary doctors whose only crime is prescribing perfectly legal pain medication. By applying federal statutes intended for drug dealers, federal prosecutors are waging a senseless and destructive war on doctors. The real victims of the new campaign are not only doctors, but their patients as well."

These bureaucrats don’t know the first thing about healthcare or pain management, yet they profess to know better than a licensed medical doctor what amount of a drug is too much. Physicians have been sentenced to decades behind bars for doing their best to make patients comfortable and help them cope with their conditions.

The drug warriors would have the public believe that the prisons are filled with violent criminals that need to be segregated from society. Yet, according to the Sentencing Project, 60 percent of all Federal inmates are currently imprisoned on drug charges, and one-fifth of all state prisoners are serving time for drugs, a thirteen-fold increase since 1980. The overwhelming majority of these offenders are non-violent. Not to mention, according to federal statistics, one-third of all federal inmates are illegal aliens who don’t even belong in the U.S. to begin with, many of whom are imprisoned for drug smuggling. Just imagine, if all those non-violent prisoners were removed from the system, we would have room to house the murderers, rapists, child molesters, and thieves who actually do belong behind bars, many of whom are currently released far too early because of overcrowded conditions.

The collateral damage from the War on Drugs has been astounding. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent over the past 35 years trying to achieve the myth of a drug free society. There is no such thing. In the meantime, we have gutted the U.S. Constitution of our Founding Fathers in terms of civil liberties, privacy, and property rights. We have allowed the increased use of deadly SWAT team raids, killing countless innocent bystanders. AIDS and other diseases are rampant in prisons across the nation because of inmates who violently sexually assault one another. Where is the compassion in subjecting non-violent individuals to behavior like that, simply because they are involved with drugs in some way?

To top it all off, in the post 9/11 world, the U.S. can't afford to keep the War on Drugs going any longer. Illegal drug sales fund international terrorism and provide rogue nations and terrorist groups with countless dollars to build their weapons programs and cause havoc throughout the international community.

The War on Drugs is not compassionate or conservative. It is morally bankrupt, coercive, corrupt, and unconstitutional. That's right: Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution did the Founders give the government authority to wage war against the consumption of an arbitrary list of substances by the American public. There is no excuse that can justify the needless lives lost and destroyed through this draconian public policy. Alcohol prohibition was tried and proved to be a miserable failure. It's time once and for all to bring an end to America's failed experiment with drug prohibition as well.

Conservatives are supposed to stand for the Constitution, liberty, and limited government interference in individual lives. The War on Drugs is incompatible with a free society, and the fact that Ron Paul is the only conservative candidate running for the White House in 2008 to recognize that is troubling to say the least.