They appeal by turn to science, coercion, and morality to bolster anti-drugism. To fend off pangs of pity, the ritual executioner must cover the victim's face and gag his mouth-disidentifying him as a fellow human being and silencing his cry to be spared. America's courts silence our Drug War victims decisively, hiding their faces behind prison walls, revising our cultural theme of personal freedom to accommodate anti-drugism. The civil rights of druggies are rarely part of the news story. The shattered lives of drug prisoners and their families do not qualify them as pitiable victims of excessive harshness, but rather as walking commemorations, solemnly validating our stern anti-drug beliefs.
Sacred violence creates social solidarity and generates political meaning.
Police, parents, community groups, and the media unite to send kids a dissuading message about drugs. Their support of the Drug War shows an instinctive understanding that acts of punitive ritual violence send the most powerful message imaginable, an endorsement of positive values with primal intensity. Sheltered by the justifying myth, our sacred violence is gratifying and free of guilt, executed in good faith by those who live inside that myth. But nearly every American believes at least one potent anti-drug exaggeration and most are willing to overlook the excesses of crusading drug warriors and accept their explanation for our punitive system. So we must examine anti-drugism's widely believed claim that drugs cause violence.