Duterte too has characterized drug use as a sickness, so don’t assume the medical approach is purely a liberal narrative. We are told more and more to view drug use as a medical problem, but this too takes away the agency of most people who use drugs, who are not addicts and are otherwise unhealthy. The laws are determined by the attitudes. These attitudes on drugs aren’t determined by the laws. There’s been a groundswell of support for ending the criminalization of drugs the past few years, but we must look beyond legalization efforts. Do not rest content with the progress our culture has made, because it can disappear. But what Trump lacks is a complicit population so please, be more vocal in helping humanize people who are simply making a living or trying to enjoy themselves the same way hundreds of millions of Americans do legally - by being intoxicated. Trump has voiced his support for Duterte’s tactics and he’s appointed one of the most extreme Nixonian throwback drug warriors to be the most powerful prosecutor in the country. They are only unique in their consistency. What is happening in the Philippines is the logic behind all drug wars carried out to its terrifying conclusion. Turning peaceful market participants into threats helps distract from the real enabler of foreign terrorists and criminal cartels’ drug profits: Drug laws. The rather flimsy empirical connection between drug sales and funding of terrorism only gains serious currency in the national discourse because we’re conditioned to view these “criminals” as dangerous. Ronald Reagan’s characterization of drug crime as a matter of national security is to this day the official DEA position. Just this year Maine governor Paul Lepage unapologetically called for the guillotining of drug users on TV. Infamous chief of the LAPD Daryl Gates said that any drug offense is tantamount to treason and should be punished with the death penalty.Įven now there’s propaganda equating those who buy and sell drugs with terrorists deserving of death. Bush’s drug czar William Bennett said he had no issue with beheading drug dealers in public. ![]() Only 4 presidential administrations ago, in the early 90s, George H.W. It wasn’t all that long ago Ronald Reagan characterized the drug war as not simply a matter of law and order, but a national security concern. The continued existence of drug criminals is seen as a burden and their non-compliance a violent threat. ![]() Once you’ve declared a “war” on an entire group of people, dehumanization is inevitable. Still, I think Americans should understand that the logic underlying Duterte’s drug war isn’t dissimilar to ours. It’s as much a cleansing of one’s population as any genocide. Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war in the Phillipines is unique in its policy of extrajudicial murder of all drug dealers and users.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |