Many Americans are in step with this sentiment and condemn those people who champion violence and drug hysteria as committing precisely this kind of treason. The evidence that urges us to decriminalize drugs and stop the violence is plentiful. I find it hard to imagine that the drug warriors are really so dull-witted that they cannot grasp this evidence or that they cannot grasp the findings of their peers. In fact, it is entirely possible that some of them actually do grasp the facts and dishonestly argue against them. Dr. Grinspoon and Mr. Bakalar make a fascinating suggestion as to why this could be true.
Drugs are symbols charged with cultural tension.
Repressed anxieties may be displaced onto drug users as a form of scapegoating. The metaphor of war is rarely invoked in the name of consumer protection but constantly used in the assault on psychoactive drugs. The reason is that laws controlling these drugs are ultimately aimed not at consumer protection but at containing what is believed to be a threat to the social fabric and moral order. But, in light of all the government studies, and the growing number of Americans who have signed the Hoover Institution's Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy, it is right to wonder if the drug soldiers themselves might not have fallen over on the wrong side of the moral fence. More About the November Coalition America's Drug War Editorials on the War on Drugs Write your legislators and local papers.