Advanced Drug War Technology

The Doser has a friend that, speaking of protecting the US from drugs, made the following comment: "If we built a 25 foot wall all the way around the US, a cottage industry would immediately spring up all along the outside constructing 30 foot ladders." The recent article in the April 26, 2009, NYT Magazine reminded The Doser of his friend's remark. The article points out that our "enemy" in "The Drug War" is delivering tons of cocaine in almost submersible home-made boats. They are fabricated by unskilled workers in the jungles of Columbia. Successes against each new technical improvement on illicit drug delivery are heart-warming to Drug War aficionados but they are relatively insignificant compared to the failures: Only an estimated 14% of these semi-submersibles is detected. Seventy of them were constructed last year. Each one carries 10 metric tons of cocaine, or any other cargo. A little math reveals that they are able to deliver a probable 650 tons of coke annually.

The Drug War

The Doser asks his readers to consider their reasons for supporting The Drug War for such a long time and so generously. Let's look at it this way:
(1) Do I think that the drug war has stopped a lot of people from taking drugs in the first place?
(2) Do I believe that a lot of people that were committed to using drugs have been stopped from using them by the War?
(3) Do I believe that a lot of people have been protected, by the "War" effort, from being looted or killed by the drug traffic?
(4) Do I believe that fewer people are using drugs now than when the "War" started?
(5) Do I think that we are "winning" the drug war?
(6) Do I think we are holding our own in the drug war?
(7) Do I think we have not yet lost The Drug War?
(8) When President O'Bama talks about programs justifying their existence to get funding, do I think The Drug War will justify its existence by pointing to its progress and victories?
(9) Do I think that drug suppliers are the criminals and that users are just sick people?
(10) Do I think that, if we increased our allotment or changed our War strategy, we'd bring the matter to victory?
(11) Do I think The Drug War makes a strong moral statement about the US?
(12) Do I think that conducting The Drug War is better than not conducting it?


If you answered any of the above questions with a "Yes, I do," don't bother to read on. You have a good thing going for you. Why fix it?

If you did not answer any of the questions with a "Yes, I do," here are some references to help you apply focus on your dissatisfaction:

"The Drug War" is the almost 40 year old Crusade that now costs the Federal and State governments of the United States close to $15 billion each quarter-annum. The cost mounts at the rate of $600 per second. You might watch the costs click the clock up on the ongoing costs.

The Doser says: The Drug War is a euphemism for: Stop other people from providing our people with the drugs they want."

Though it has been dubbed a "War," it really has never been considered one - since we do not publish our losses, the costs involved or the "body-count" (a Viet Nam War practice.)

There is so much creditable material on The Web that excoriates the so-called Drug Wat that The Doser got lost in attempting to make a decent bibliography. You are asked to browse the topic of The Drug War.

One final note: A good place to get synoptic impressions of The Drug War is on Alternet. Why go to the Alernet rather than the WSJ or the NYT or the Big O? Because the war on The Drug War is not yet being fought by the establishment press.

Drop quiz.

The is a test! The Doser will never know the results, of course, but you will. Here it is: Do you still moisten the bristles of your tooth brush before you brush your teeth? Yes or no - admit it. Your assignment for the next session is to think about "memory" and "habits." Do you have other habits as pernicious as unthinkingly moistening a plastic bristle tooth brush years after natural fiber tooth brushes were long gone?

Earth-sized Neighbor

The Doser has heard the good news that an earth-sized planet has been found in a neighboring solar system. The bad news is that it is 137 trillion miles away.

The mother of the pirate that survived the mishandled piracy of the Maersk Alabama has addressed a plea to President O'Bama: ".... release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial." The Doser thinks President O'Bama should be magnanimous and say: "Yes, you may visit your son during regular visiting hours and be present in the court room during his trial." It is even possible, of course, that some knee-jerk may pay her passage over to this country in the event her son has run through his loot from any piracies of other vessels. The Doser just learned that, if our prosecutors are successful, this pirate will be sentenced to life imprisonment - at our expense! Maybe President O'Bama should be merciful and say: "He's on his way home."

Train Travel.

It is a treasured custom for Portlanders to criticize The Oregonian harshly. Today, however, the editorial writer both pleased The Doser with an opinion but also stated it elegantly. On the issue of President Barack O'Bama's plan to build a usable passenger rail system in the US, the writer concluded: "Obama's rail investment is a welcome step. However, as long as the United States insists on being the land of cheap gas and low taxes, it will continue to be the land of congested freeways and plodding passenger trains." Yep. (The Doser's criticism: It will be a day or so before The Oregonian will post its editorial of the morning.)

East Coast of Africa

All the news from Africa's eastern coast is not bad. Ecological gains are being made in the area south of Somalia.

Athletic Supporters Examined

The Doser continues to wonder why some suspended adolescents in government are thinking of new and improved spectator sports and entertainment amenities when the real municipal issues of our area are so pressing. Maybe it's part of some regressive mentality. Did they get picked last in the scrub games in their neighborhood? Are we thinking of Nero - fiddling around while Rome was burning?

Don't Arm the Sitting Bucks - er Ducks.

There is a group that opposes arming the vessels that are, unarmed, the easy prey of the Somali pirates. Could it be the world's arms producers, including those in the US, that are saying: "Don't arm the vessels to resist these expensive incursions!" Who else, The Doser asks, would be saying a dumb thing like that?

The Lost Drug War

NO, it is not Mexico's failure to kill enough of its citizens to prevent drug flow into the US. NO, it is not the Customs people who fail to catch the transporters of money and weapons into Mexico to fight the Drug War there. NO, it is not the fault of our Border Patrol to prevent illicit drugs from coming into the country. NO, it is not our penal system that fails to rehabilitate drug-pushers. NO, it is not the overburdened cops in the US and Mexico that aren't stamping out the traffic in drugs. NO, it is not community failure to provide alternatives for the gangsters that are doing our local drug deliveries. NO, it isn't even the fault of the gangsters who sieze the opportunity to profit from the trade. WELL, asks The Doser: what's the problem here? WE, THE USERS, ARE THE PROBLEM. THE WHOLE PROBLEM.

Good News is Better

The Doser believes that return of confidence to US citizens needs to be part of the turn-around from our current straits. It is necessary for the media to publish the news but it is clearly impossible for any segment of the media to print all of the news. It does seem to The Doser that the media, given that limitation,tends to select from the negative news available. It would be better to present a larger percentage of positive items. They are available. Many of us did not know that there are stirrings of return to civilization in Zimbabwe. The media doesn't have to define good news as reporting that a Boy Scout troop planted a tree. Good news that is big is available. What's going on in Zimbabwe is good and big!

Goal in Iraq

The US has recklessly refused to make a set of goals to base the decision upon when we should withdraw from Iraq. This perennial indecision provides a sort of "goal" that appears to have been settled upon, by default. It is that we will stay in Iraq until we create a stable, westernized, US-favoring government that has stopped its citizens from killing each other. The Doser notes that there is a government established in Iraq and, since that is the case, we are Nosy-Parkers if we don't just step out and let it run its own country.

Palin for President Campaign

Palin pfamily pfounder publicizes his pfornication. Plans to palliate public pfaulty pfiguring that his pfolks are poor, pale pfling-out people. Palin partisans are prodigiously pleased. "Palin has presidential pfiber."

With the "big bank bail-out" the government was doing one of two things: it was deliberately using our future money to reward the ones that clobbered us OR it screwed up. The government either wanted that money to be passed up to the bankers as reward for their conduct OR the government wanted the money to be passed down to ordinary business people. The Doser is not trying to salvage respect for the government. He's just trying to find a way to work with it. The Doser says we need to adopt the "government screwed up" theory and move on.

Pirates

The Doser can't organize for himself a clear picture of why important vessels performing presumably important chores are toadying to a bunch of African pirates. Why, The Doser thinks to himself, don't the servile owners of the important vessels provide their crews with some armament? However, if they just can't bring themselves to harm pirates, why don't they just navigate a craven course farther out in the Indian Ocean?

The Doser is not utterly alone in his support of drug-legalization. Hilary Clinton has acknowledged that the US has some responsibility for the present Drug War fiasco. A junior senator from Virginia (he probably won't be a senator long enough for you to memorize his name) has come out in favor of declaring victory in the Drug War and getting out it.

Expensive absurdity.

The Doser wishes that he could access Portland's Street Roots newspaper to the extent of giving you a link to this opinion piece: Yoo Kanduit's column in the April 1, 2009, issue. You would enjoy it! It gently pokes satirical fun at our response to our, largely unwarranted, national horror of marijuana. He bases his jibes on how we have extended our marijuana concern to interdiction of the use of hemp - which is a fiber source of old and varied usefulness. If The Doser were the sort of person to tell people what to do, he might urge them to read Street Roots.

We must remember that, when a drug addict cannot afford his "fix," there is nothing that he won't do to get the money to secure it. If we legalized drugs and had them governmentally controlled, we would reduce the horrors that Mexico has been experiencing and that we will, more and more, experience. Such evidences of the extent to which addicts will go to supply their habits are becoming more and more apparent. Our "Noble Experiment" should have taught us not to do this drug- war stuff. We are still experiencing the contempt for government that we inherited from the Prohibition experiment. The Doser says: "Enough."

A hopeful dose from Jackson County.

It appears to The Doser that, in the face of an acknowledged "difficult financial situation," the Portland, Oregon, area politicos are playing politics with such non-vital issues as: How many lanes shall the Interstate Bridge have? How can a more powerful position be achieved by trashing Portland's Mayor? How can we get a professional soccer team to Portland? Steve Duin, in The Oregonian this morning, points to Jackson County, Oregon, as a place that has a more viable plan than to run the political mill as usual. The Doser recommends that readers utilize this therapeutic dose from Oregon's banana belt to initiate suggestions to the Multnomah area politicos.

Abortion

Putting aside all that rational business about "freedom of decision" and the "right of women to control their own bodies," what has been won is an open medical procedure performed by a capable person in surgical circumstances. What has been left behind is a filthy place where an untrained person performs a clandestine procedure with a clothes-hanger. The Doser says: "That is sufficient reason never to go the way the Fundies seem to want us to go."