Early yesterday morning a 22-year-old male--who, according to police, was driving with a suspended license because of a previous drunken driving conviction--allegedly ran a red light, broadsided a car killing three people and seriously injuring another, and then fled the scene. Also according to police, the accused had a blood-alcohol level that was substantially over the legal limit. He was booked in jail on three counts of murder, three counts of vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, felony driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident. You may have heard about this incident given that one of the victims was Los Angeles Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart.
This isn't the first time we've heard about someone who's been drinking and driving and is then let out/off so the crime can be repeated, and unfortunately it won't be the last time either. Alcohol is a drug. As a society we don't like to face that fact, just look at the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution which repealed the 18th (prohibition), but nonetheless alcohol is a legal recreational drug. Some are calling to legalize other recreational drugs. No, I'm not a member of MADD and I'm not currently calling for the reinstitution of prohibition, but I am asking us to look at how serious we are as a nation at fighting against harmful drugs. Alcohol has killed, does kill, and will continue to kill many innocent people, not to mention all the other harms that it heaps upon its victims. Do we really want to create even more sorrow by allowing other recreational drugs to be legal? Don't we already have enough to handle with just alcohol? If we really have a war on drugs, why aren't drunken driving penalties more stringent?
Here's another one to contemplate. I run the drug screening program where I work. More times than I'd like to admit, results come back positive for the use of illegal drugs. If we really have a war on drugs in this country, why isn't it mandatory for medical facilities to turn this information over to the police to use in convicting proven law breakers? I know what some of you are thinking, "Do you realize how much more overcrowded our jails would be if we did that?" And my response is the same, "How serious are we?"
Some of the people I work with are ex-cons (not necessarily for drugs). I am told that it's pretty easy to get drugs in prison because they are brought in by the prison guards! True or not, shouldn't there be drug sniffing dogs at all prisons? That is, if we're truly serious about reducing illegal drug use and distribution? This is just one example, but there are many other actions we can take to make obtaining illegal drugs much harder.
In wartime people get killed. From drug lords to dealers, many on that side of the "war" kill those who would oppose them. We're even told they have some pretty heavy weaponry. But in addition to killing their enemies they also kill their own, those that work for them and the lowly users (either directly or indirectly through overdoses). Isn't that what Hitler did, kill his own as well as his enemies? To take the comparison even further, their "Jews" are those in law enforcement, except for those on the take of course. We seem to hold Hitler up as one of the most, if not the most, evil despots in the history of the world. Drug lords are in essence little Hitlers who infiltrate nations with their wares and kill myriads of people. Are we as united in ridding the world of such murderers as we were at ridding the world of the genocial maniac of WWII? How serious are we?
Where is our war on drugs? Where is your war on drugs? How serious are you?
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