Column:

War on drugs ineffective, wasteful

By Ryan Beck

Published April 4, 2008

With this entire hubbub about the upcoming election still going on, and no clear-cut candidate from the Democratic Party, it makes you get very grumpy when all that you hear on the radio and TV relates back to either Hillary or Barack. We students have a huge part to play in the upcoming election, so I believe certain issues that directly effect our demographic need to be discussed.

The war in Iraq has been going on for over five years now. That’s a long time, but it’s not even close to the length of another American war: the war on drugs. The United States consumes half of the world’s drugs. But this war on drugs only started because the Americans who began using cocaine as a crutch were white. There is a disgusting racial undertone to the war on drugs; only 5 grams of crack cocaine amounts to the same penalty as 500 grams of cocaine. If you have that much of either drug it’s a five-year-minimum sentence for possession. A 100-to-1 ratio! Outside of Tony Montana, who would ever have that much cocaine?

It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that either you are or someone you know is familiar in the ways of the drug trade. I’m not writing a PSA about the dangers of drug addiction — far from it. However, I am going to address this problem from where it sparked: elementary school.

They started us out early with Drug Abuse Resistance Education — yes, I’m talking about DARE. What a joke that was. Kids only pretended to listen and behave because they knew they would be rewarded with playing Oregon Trail on the Apple computer. What’s that? You forded the river in your Conestoga wagon and your wife died of dysentery?!

Yes, kids learn of the dangers and the addictive tendencies of a user, but having the mascot for such an important message be a creepy lion in a T-shirt debunks the whole statement. The program was full of conundrums and irony. Hey Gub’ment, if you don’t want kids to make meth, here is an idea: Stop telling them how to make it! I have never had the urge (and I hear it’s quite an urge) to use or make meth, but I could tell you that Sudafed and cleaning supplies are essential to the concoction.

The best and worst example of irony in the program is the graduation. Children were told to sing the dangers of drugs over a corny nineties rap beat. And at the close each graduate received his or her DARE card. The DARE card allowed the kids to get free McDonald’s french fries for the rest of their lives! All you have to do is show the card to cashier. I know many people who still claim to have the card. And the DARE program recognizes it as a success. Yes, it was so successful, kids use their cards still to this very day, to get french fries ... after they’ve smoked a joint and have the munchies.

That idea is just silly. They might as well implement some new sexual abstinence programs they give the graduates admission to a strip club. This way they can practice looking and not touching.

Nevertheless, it is up to the students and young people of today to implement this change that both Barack and Hillary talk about — every day. Reforming backwards programs like DARE could be just a starting point. But if you decide that you passivism is your thing, I can dig. Just don’t forget your DARE card next time you get that itch.

Love, Ryan Beck