What is at the heart of ending the WoD is human rights; a topic which doctors have no more knowledge than anyone else.
In this case those natural allies include the white working class, which suffers greatly from drug addiction, as well as doctors and other health care workers who value the integrity of their profession and believe drug policy should be focused on improving outcomes for drug users.
Social action in America has fundamentally always been about compromise. Race, class and gender reductionism discourage it. It's both possible and productive to say you empathize with the problems someone else faces, your set of problems overlaps, and the two of you can cooperate without debating whose problems are more significant.
I for one is happy that it is started to be treated as public health issue, it is a long overdue approach, yet one can't not to see the race based disparity mentioned above.
So we've got to change the minds of the voting base. Physicians are highly respected in this country and to have them come out en masse and state that drug addiction is a health issue and not a criminal issue would do a lot to change the minds of voters...which could then slightly change the minds of our lawmakers.
And your point about "doctors come out en masse and state that drug addiction is a health issue" may be a double-edged sword for them since we all know that the opiate epidemic and subsequent heroin use increase are issues created, by a large part, by doctors.
I don't think physicians are primarily responsible for our heroin epidemic, in my opinion that prize belongs to the pharmaceutical industry and our politicians...but I'm open to any evidence that proves me wrong.
Drug money is used to rig elections and train brutal corporate sponsored dictators around the world
- Serj Tankian
(on another note, I am happy this is the second time I have quoted System of a Down on HN and it was 100% pertinent to the discussion)
While it sounds good, it's pretty bullshit to say the war on drugs is about financing dictators.
It's fair to say that the CIA does have pet opium projects, with US ground troops playing guards for Afghan farmers. But that's a different thing.
You're missing the point. Drug sales can be monopolized by the powers that be to generate off-the-books revenue streams. This can then finance any questionable activity they'd prefer not to be held accountable for.
This exact scenario has happened before - see the Iran-Contra affair.
It's almost like a band that literally exists to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide are actually quite politically astute.
It's remarkable to me that this WoD still exists. When Obama was elected this is something I thought he would address.
Weren't bans on drugs pervasive throughout history?
Isn't it amazing that you think that? Seems to say something about the schools... If physicians can finally, at this late date, consider doing the right thing politically, it makes one wonder... will public schoolteachers ever kick the DARE officers out?
Seems unlikely, doesn't it?
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition "The earliest records of prohibition of alcohol date to the Xia Dynasty (ca. 2070 BC–ca. 1600 BC) in China."