Sentinel SHOCKER: Teens at Keene High Use Drugs

Kudos to the Keene Sentinel’s Kaitlin Mulhere for telling some truth about life in the purportedly idyllic New England town of Keene, NH. Guess what? Teenagers use drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, ecstasy, heroin, and others. In fact, drug use is common at Keene High School. The drug war is a failure.

Ok, so I added the last sentence to my summary of the Sentinel’s recent detailed piece on a study done regarding drug use at KHS. Mulhere doesn’t come right out and say the drug war is a failure, but her article is just more proof of what anyone who thinks for a short time about the war on drugs knows is true: you can’t stop human beings from altering their consciousness.

The politicians keep passing laws, increase the penalties, add in mandatory minimum sentences, and what do we get? Harder drugs on the streets and no reduction in the number of users. New dealers step in to replace the ones that are taken down by busts. The insanity of the war on drugs has gone on now for generations and destroyed countless lives of drug users, dealers, and even people who don’t use drugs. (For instance, everyone who has ever been stolen from or robbed by a drug addict is an indirect victim of the drug war, since prohibition drives the price of drugs up dramatically past what its normal market price would be.)

One of the ostensible reasons for the war on drugs is to protect the youth. However, the study cited by the Sentinel is proof the drug war has spectacularly failed in this way. What’s the solution from “the state”? Same as always. Cops, courts, jail cells. Oh, wait – now they have “drug court’. All of a sudden “the state” has gotten compassionate? Sorry, don’t buy it. Coercion is not compassion, not matter how much you dress it up. I’ve sat in on drug court in Cheshire county and watched as a single mother was locked up by the robed man because he didn’t believe her answer as to whether she had spoken with a former dealer recently.

A major failure of the Sentinel’s feature story, as well as almost all mainstream coverage of drug use is the failure to differentiate between users and abusers. The Sentinel story uses “abuse” frequently to describe ALL drug users. However, most drug users are responsible users – that’s why despite rampant substance *use*, society doesn’t fall apart. Alcohol, by far the most dangerous and abused drug, is still responsibly used by millions of Americans.

Government people: to help drug abusers, stop arresting them. Also, stop arresting drug users and ruining their lives, too. End the insane war on drugs and allow abusers (or users) who want help quitting to seek it without having to fear being put in a cage or being subjected to the court system.

Portugal decriminalized possession of small amounts of all drugs over a decade ago and addiction is down DRAMATICALLY – by 50%! The state will never solve the drug “problem” – it only makes things worse. End prohibition of drugs and let people who actually care for others step in to come up with creative ways to offer help to those seeking it.