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11/11/2024: part 2

The ‘War On Drugs’ ? JUST SAY NO !

They are popping up every now and then: the so-called anti-drug campaigns under the slogan ‘Just Say No’. Once started in the U.S.A. under the personal supervision of the late President Ronald Reagan and his devout wife Nancy, this method beer succeeds. Mainly because of the simplistic content of this slogan-like method. Moreover, in this short Opinion I will demonstrate the irony  that ‘Just Say No’ applies perfectly to the wildly popular ‘war on drugs’.

On March 10, 1997, I defended my doctoral thesis on self-organizations of drug users in Belgium and the Netherlands at the ‘Free University of Brussels. In addition to the application of  quantitative methods (reporting via interviews with drug users), I opted for the controversial ‘Participating Observation’. Better known in police circles as ‘Deep Cover’, albeit without the methodological rules that apply to social scientists. In other words: during my many years spent among drug users, homeless people, addicts but also in organizations and even in political circles, nobody knew that I was actually a researcher. In this way I could of course collect a lot of inaccessible data, albeit not always in the safest situations.

What is important today, however, are the conclusions of this PhD. More specifically, most of them still seem to be 100% valid. Consequently, NOTHING has changed since the unofficial start of the War on Drugs, more than a century ago. In fact, the War on Drugs is the only ‘war’ that is fueled by its own failure. The worse the results, the more support the partners in crime apparently get! And worldwide, people continue to support this kind of madness.

In my PhD I showed how this mechanism works: all the actors benefit from the continuation of the status quo. First of all… the drug producers and dealers (unimaginable amounts of money are involved), but also the ‘drug fighters’ (several billions pumped into the police and army) who have to legitimize their existence. This was already somewhat known. What was not known: the entire drug prevention and aid sector benefits from the war on drugs too. Firstly because all these organizations in turn have grown into a real industry. In which actual prevention and aid have long since ceased to be goals… Only their own survival and cashing in as many subsidies as possible are central here.

In 2024, these conclusions are still valid. As is the objective observation that in all countries politicians continue to outcompete each other with debates and bombastic statements about their solution to the drug problem (In Belgium, for example, the well-known mayor of Antwerp…). While the biggest problem lies in their camp: no one makes any effort to define that ‘drug problem’. That was actually the most sensational conclusion from my PhD: the war on drugs is being waged worldwide in a theoretical vacuum. While the essence of every policy should start with the correct description of the issue you want to tackle. Not in this case…

The result of this literally hallucinatory situation is, once again, the same for a century: policy actors, police, army and the social-medical world focus almost one-sidedly on drug users who are always the scapegoat. It doesn’t seem to surprise anyone that nothing changes in this battle. It does to me. 27 years later, still. Every year, billions in subsidies and taxes are literally wasted. In a war that has acquired sectarian allure.

A generally accepted definition of the drug problem would be a good start (I’ve been waiting for this since 27 years…). It would also be useful to launch a new campaign to all taxpayers (‘the common people’) worldwide: ‘The war on drugs? JUST SAY NO!’.

Maybe then the politicians will wake up? On the eve of November 11, such an awareness could certainly count!

 

Belgium, 10th of November 2024

Dr. Jean Blanquart

Camille Charlierstraat 33
B-5020 Flawinne (Namur)
jean_blanquart@yahoo.fr
++32 455 176025
https://www.jc-blanquart.eu/earthlings-arise-just-say-no

 

 

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