TIME TO END THE FAUX DRUG WAR
By Mark Wohlander
Posted Friday, December 16, 2016
As a direct consequence of the past eight years of what can best be described as total indifference and neglect to protecting our borders, our nation is now immersed in one of the deadliest and costliest battles in the 44-year drug war, a war which has claimed more than 50,000 lives this year alone.
Although many open border advocates have mocked President-elect Donald Trump's plan to secure and defend our borders, what they fail to understand, or are unwilling to acknowledge, is that President-elect Trump was absolutely, 100 percent correct when he said: "A wall will not only keep out dangerous cartels and criminals, but it will also keep out the drugs and heroin poisoning our youth."
Although it might be somewhat of an overstatement, at least in central and eastern Kentucky there is a perception that over the past eight years the federal government has fought a faux drug war. Instead of closing the drug pipelines of opioids, crystal methamphetamine and heroin flowing over our open borders into central and eastern Kentucky, the focus of the drug war has been to target street addicts who distribute small quantities of drugs to pay for their own addictions.
While the current plan of arresting and prosecuting street dealers might provide an abundant supply of press releases, the policy does little to identify the "dangerous cartels and criminals" responsible for importing the poison which ends up in the hands of drug addicts.
An unintended consequence of the faux drug war is that while hundreds of gram dealers have been prosecuted and sentenced to state and federal prison, the kilogram dealers have for the most part remained in the shadows and have avoided arrest and prosecution. At the end of the day, does it make sense to put hundreds of street dealers in state and federal prison, or should we save those limited resources to lock up and throw away the key for those who are importing hundreds of kilograms of the poison which is flooding into our communities, poison which is responsible for destroying an entire generation.
What has happened over these past years is that many prosecutors have attempted to social engineer an end to the plague of drugs. While there is little doubt that we will not win the drug war without a multi-faceted approach to addiction, treatment cannot and should not be the primary focus of law enforcement or prosecutors. Instead, treatment should be left to the professionals who are best equipped to treat the symptoms of addiction.
Unfortunately, because of an open border policy and years of neglect, those appointed to take over the leadership of federal law enforcement agencies will face an uphill battle to again gain the foothold necessary to properly fight a drug war. What we need to understand is that the plague of drugs is not only destroying communities across Kentucky, but the plague of drugs has infiltrated every corner of America.
The question we must ask ourselves is whether we want to continue to put hundreds of addicted street dealers in prison, or do we want to put the hundreds of dealers who distribute kilograms of poison in our communities in prison? The simple answer should be that it is time to end the faux drug war, it is time to treat the addicts, and it is time to prosecute the real drug dealers.
What we must do if we intend to win the drug war is that we must unleash the full resources available to us and send a clear and resounding message that if you dare to bring poison into our communities, we will find you; we will arrest you; we will prosecute you; and, we will lock you up for life.
