Behind bars I learned that drug prohibition will never work and here’s why: no one gives a f*ck.

Even though most people walking through an airport with a condom full of white powder stuffed up their ass probably don’t realise it – drug trafficking is a political act and has been from the start.

In fact the very first dealers in history were actually the British Empire or more accurately, the East India Trading Company.

When the Chinese emperor banned opium which the Brits were shipping over dirt-cheap from India international smack kingpin Alexandrina ‘Queen’ Victoria ordered the Royal Navy to bombard the shit out of China and capture Hong Kong.

So began the Opium Wars.

You see the ‘War on Drugs’ is an ideology – so defying it is a political act.

It is also a corrupt and hypocritical ideology which exists only to further the interests of politicians and ignores the advice of doctors and experts; you know – people who know what they are talking about.

How is this different from other crimes – let’s say murder?

Firstly illegal doesn’t mean immoral and vice-versa.

For example hiding Jews and other persecuted individuals in Nazi-occupied Europe was highly illegal – but not immoral. 

Prohibition on the other hand is immoral but not illegal.

Human beings have been getting high for literally millennia.

Peruvian tribes were chewing coca leaf as far back as 8,000 years ago – while the ancient Greeks – not content with blessing us with democracy philosophy and mathematics gave us the Eleusinian Mysteries –

– the 300 B.C. equivalent of Burning Man.

Drugs weren’t originally made illegal because of concerns about public health.

In the early 20th century we didn’t even know smoking was bad for you and tobacco firms actually ran slogans like ‘More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette’.

Instead in America the driving force of anti-drug sentiment was straight-forward racism.

Cocaine was supposed to give those deranged Southern negroes superhuman strength – while devious Chinamen were accused of plying innocent white girls with opium before having their way with them.

Marijuana was outlawed a little later – being associated with Mexicans and rumors that it made them go loco.

These Hispanics causing panic played into one of the biggest propaganda campaigns in American history – which claimed that lighting up will turn you into an axe-wielding maniac.

(cont..)

Source: Convicted drug dealers are political prisoners: I should know — I was one – Salon.com