Monday, October 14, 2002
Asa Hutchinson's Lies and Slander

DEA Director Asa Hutchinson has one of America's most daunting job descriptions: maintain public support for an outdated, counterproductive and completely disastrous American drug policy.

Since this is impossible using legitimate evidence and promising results, he resorts to lies, slander, and obfuscation. Fortunately for him, as a government "expert," he enjoys regular editorial publication without the nuisance of messy fact-checking.

Hutchinson holds U.S. drug policy up as a "model" for the world, comparing it favorably to British policy,while slandering Holland's more progressive model. The U.S., meanwhile, incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any civilization in history, while Britain has the worst hard drug problem in Europe.

Holland's incarceration rate is one-tenth that of the U.S., per capita. Holland has the lowest rate of drug overdose-deaths in Europe, the average age of a heroin addict in Holland is mid-30s, compared to 19 and falling in America. Dutch high school children score the highest in the world on math and science tests, while U.S. students are ranked 20th among nations.

Holland is not, as Hutchinson suggests, reconsidering its approach to drugs. The Dutch realize that while no drug policy in the world will cure all of a society's problems, their approach is more successful on every level than the American incarceration paradigm.

How did Holland achieve these results? By separating out marijuana from the hard drugs market and devoting their efforts toward breaking up hard drug trafficking in the largest port system in the world.

Hutchinson speaks of having a "compassionate" approach, while his agents carry out brutal raids on California medical marijuana hospices. There is no word in the English language to describe the sin of withholding medicine from a dying person, but the American drug war has already defied reason and logic, now it has claimed our ability to express horror in language.

Carry on, Asa. You know that no one can stop you. But perhaps America's motto should change from "In God We Trust" to "Might Makes Right."