 |
 One
is hard-pressed to forget that this array of paraphernalia and
weaponry was mounted by an agency that has seen its budget soar
from $280 million to $1.4 billion in just 15 years by dint of
flogging the supposedly ever-escalating menace of Bad Drugs. We
are
|
A
recent medical review found that more than 100,000 Americans die
every year from toxic reactions to "correctly prescribed medicines
taken properly."
That's as a compared to the estimated 15,000 who wind up in body
bags every year thanks to
|
greeted by a pair of vitrines that highlight the distinction between
Good Drugs and Bad Drugs.
On the left: a lame representation of "An American Head Shop, Circa
1970s," which |
 |
illicit drugging. And the toll from illegal drugs shrinks even further
besides the 500,000 Americans killed every year thanks to overen
- thusiastic use of tobacco and alcohol. |
denotes
"the middle-class championing of illegal drugs ..., a historic
and seismic shift that would have devastating consequences for
the whole society."
On the right: the products that might be bought off the shelves
of "An American Drug Store, Circa 1940s," when "illegal drugs
were a blessedly remote problem."
But the legal medicines
procured at your friendly neighborhood drug store are hardly innocuous.
|
Are illicit drugs then
really "one of
our nation's worst problems," as the DEA claims. I would be the
last to suggest that drugs are never dangerous. Over-indulgence
in any pleasure is sure to become problematic. And some illicit
substances are harder not to abuse than some others, as I have
had to learn for myself.
But why this Drug War
hysteria?
However unhappily, we seem somehow to cope with the ravages of
drunk driving, lung cancer and adverse reactions to prescribed
medications without shredding the Constitution, spawning,
|
|
A
R
T
I
C
L
E
S
|
