Excerpt:
"Then there’s our futile “war on drugs”
that has created so much pain of its own. It’s done so by locking up
mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and children for insanely
long prison sentences and offering no treatment. It does so by costing
so much it’s warping the economies of states that have huge numbers of
nonviolent offenders in prison and not enough money for education or
healthcare. It does so by branding
as felons and pariahs those who have done time in the drug-war prison
complex. It was always aimed most directly at African-Americans, and the
toll it’s taken would require a week of telling.
No border divides the pain caused by drugs from the pain brought about in Latin America by the drug business and the narcotraficantes.
It’s one big continent of pain -- and in the last several years the
narcos have begun selling drugs in earnest in their own countries,
creating new cultures
of addiction and misery. (And yes, Mexico, your extravagantly corrupt
government, military, and police have everything to do with the drug war
now, but file that under greed, as usual, about which your pretty new
president is unlikely to do anything much.)
Imagine that the demand ceased tomorrow; the profitable business of
supply would have to wither away as well. Many talk about legalizing
drugs, and there’s something to be said for changing the economic
arrangements. But what about reducing their use by developing and
promoting more interesting and productive ways of dealing with
suffering? Or even getting directly at the causes of that suffering?
Some drug use is, of course, purely recreational, but even
recreational drug use stimulates these economies of carnage. And then
there are...
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-solnit/apologies-to-mexico_b_1661723.html 
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