Addicted

We've been living in Belgium for nearly 2 years and I realized I've bought a new pair of shoes for every six weeks we've been here.

I really love shoes, but is this an addiction, I wonder.

I guess I shouldn't worry too much, it's not going to kill me.

Maastricht - a city in the Netherlands, just a half hour from our house is really beautiful and we've visited there several times.

It's a really good place to shop for shoes and incidentally, marijuana (cannabis).

Coffeeshop is local lingo for a place to buy marijuana.

This is one of several boats on the River Maas (Meuse) that runs through Maastricht. I thought it was odd that the boats (not just this one) are named for U.S. states.

We (and by we, I mean, the family) were discussing drugs - those which are legal and those which are not. As you may know, the global "war on drugs" and particularly America's "war on drugs", declared exactly 40 years ago, is a complete failure.

This is not debated by anyone. It's a fact.

According to a recent NYTimes article, in the last 20 years, consumption of:

opiates - has increased 34.5%

cocaine - has increased 27%

cannabis - has increased 8.5%

Interesting factoids:

>Around 90% of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan

>Around 75% of the world's cocaine comes from Columbia

>Marijuana is America's biggest cash crop

Like cigarettes and alcohol?

Some of this information is from the recent report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy. This commission includes former presidents, former prime ministers, former UN secretary general, and more.

The primary recommendation of this commission is to

"substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders".

Well, that makes a lot of sense on every level. But didn't we already know that?

President Jimmy Carter made this same recommendation in a message to Congress for the U.S. drug policy. Three decades ago.

***

The U.S. has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. In 2009, 1 out of every 135 U.S. residents was in prison.

According to the FBI, in 2009, there were 1.6 million arrests for drug violations in the U.S. Nearly 50% were for marijuana and 89% of those were for possession only.

Prison = federal

Jail = state/local

~The '70s~

Three decades ago, President Carter said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program for treatment of addicts. He also cautioned against filling prisons with young people who were no threat to society.

He summarized by saying: "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

Worth repeating . . .

"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

Although President Carter's recommendations were accepted at the time, in the early '70's President Nixon had declared the war on drugs and created the DEA in 1973.

~The '80s~

President Reagan and Congress shifted toward efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries by throwing $1.7 billion into the drug war and creating mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses. Oh, and Nancy launched her "Just Say No" effort.

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appoints the first "drug czar".

~The '90s & '00's~

President Clinton signed NAFTA in 1993 making it difficult for U.S. Customs to find narcotics as they crossed the border. Then in 2000, President Clinton did his part to continue the futile effort by giving $1.3 billion to Plan Columbia in an effort to control cocaine production.

President George W. Bush continued the trend and here we are, over $1 trillion and 40 years later needing to seriously re-focus.

Interesting factoids:

>The U.S. spent over $15 billion in 2010 on the War on Drugs at a rate of $500 per second.

> State and local governments spent an estimated additional $25 billion.

>Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds.

>An American is arrested for violating cannabis laws every 30 seconds.

***

In the Netherlands, which borders Belgium to the north, marijuana is not legal, but there is a tolerance policy in effect which states possession of a maximum of 5 grams for personal use is not prosecuted and furthermore, 5 cannabis plants may be grown without prosecution.

This is a map of European Cannabis Laws

Illegal in France?

This is a map of European Cannabis Use

Perhaps France should be orange in that other map?

(geographically challenged? France is large and dark green.)

Back to the addiction part. According to a recent study in Britain, heroin and crack cocaine rank as second and third most harmful drugs when considering harm to the user and to others.

"Harm to user" =

- drug-related death

- drug dependence

- damage to health

"Harm to others" =

- crime

- family conflict

- economic cost

So what's the most harmful drug?

Alcohol.

On a scale of 1 to 100, here's how the top few stack up as "harmful" as well as their addiction rate. Interesting what is legal and what is not.

Alcohol 72 82%

Heroin 55 88%

Crack cocaine 54 96%

Ice/Glass -- 93%

Crystal meth 33 91%

Oxycodone -- 99%

Cocaine 27 --

Tobacco 26 98%

Amphetamines 23 --

Cannabis 20 --

Benzodiazepines 15 86%

-- = no data

Surely access and consumption play a role in this data and I'm definitely not advocating the legalization of even more addictive drugs, but . . .

hopefully a fresh approach to a decades-old issue and perhaps a new policy will do what the previous four decades has not.

Ironically, just last month, the Dutch (Netherlands) government announced that tourists are banned from Dutch coffee shops (places like that boat pictured above). May I see your passport please?

This has no effect on me. Just don't stop tourists from buying shoes.