The War On Drugs
A Different Strategy

Harry Dimwit Reid loudly proclaimed that the war in Iraq was lost. General Petraeus quietly thought that maybe we needed a new strategy. He devised one and, presto, the Iraq War was won.

To paraphrase the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen in his famous Dan Quayle put-down, I ain't no David Petraeus, but I think we need a new strategy in the war on drugs. We've been fighting this war for too long, and it seems to be getting worse. We have tried education, "D.A.R.E"; we have tried enforcement, various drug czars, the DEA, border enforcement.

My friends and I used to go to Mexico about once a month because we loved the people, the food, the fun and the shopping. Today we are afraid to go because of the violent drug cartels. We need a new strategy and I think Abraham Maslow showed us one back in 1943 with his Hierarchy of Needs. To fight the use of drugs, we need to give people something they need more than a drug high!

Maslow said our greatest need is not physiological or even safety, but things like Esteem and self-actualisation. Some years ago I addressed a group of proprietary school administrators. It was an early spring day in Kansas City and we had just been hit by a late winter storm that dumped about a foot of wet, sloppy snow on the city. The storm hit after midnight, and at the early hour of our meeting sidewalks had not yet been cleared. Several in my audience challenged Maslow's theories until I pointed out that everyone in the audience was wearing a tailored suit, expensive shoes, etc. It was apparent that "looking good" in front of their peers was more important to these attendees than keeping their feet warm and dry on this snowy morning.

A more current example is our foolish, new president. Obama so loves being adored that he reminds me of a beagle I once owned. This little dog so loved the smell of carrion that if she came upon a road kill, she had to roll in it. She would lie on her back across some dead animal and move like she was scratching her back... anything to rub the odor deeper. Obama is so fond of the adulation of crowds, here and abroad, that he seemingly rolls in it. Homeland security? Naaaa. Not so important. That is so "Bush"!

You think there is no treat that would wean people off drugs? It is working with tobacco - or nicotine, if you prefer. I started smoking regularly when I was 15. I took a job with a company that serviced cigarette vending machines, for pity's sake. If a machine malfunctioned and damaged a package of cigarettes, the pack was thrown away... free smokes for the help! And that was when smoking was sooo cool. I recall the great Edward R. Murrow often photographed with a cigarette. FDR frequently had his long cigarette holder clenched in his teeth. Every movie showed glamorous people smoking. Catchy TV ads promoted cigs with phrases like "a silly milimeter longer" for 101s, or even said that doctors preferred a certain brand. Romantic songs referenced smoking. Johnny Carson smoked on the Tonight show.

We stopped all of that, but smoking only increased. We tried scaring people. I remember being accosted in a mall parking lot and having a big photo of a blackened lung, disected from some cadaver, crammed in my face. It had no effect. We taxed, and are still taxing! In the South Pacific we soldiers paid 75¢ for a carton of cigarettes. Ten packs. Six bits. Today, just the tax on one pack is more than that. We enforced prohibition of sales to minors. That only made smoking a prize you won on your 18th birthday.

Then, we began to make smoking "not cool". I'm not sure how it happened... but all of a sudden, smoking was just not the sort of thing really cool people did. Smoking has seriously declined.

Supposing we all did this... if a friend mentions smoking a little pot, or snorting cocaine, we recoil in disgust. A clear signal that, while we may not worry about the legality of drugs, we just think drug use is something we find repellent.

Gee! All those poor, misguided PETA souls would have something better to do than throw paint on some ladies fur coat. The global warmng goons could go for a cause that really did some good, instead of fighting for causes that punish innocent people.

I smoked for about thirty years and found it very satisfying. Then, I found something more satisfying and I quit, cold turkey. Nothing could make me quit - until I wanted to quit. Why not give old Abraham Maslow's idea a try?

Make NOT using drugs really cool!