Date: 08-25-2010
Today's mandatory minimum sentencing laws might have had a negative impact on politics, wars, entertainment -- indeed, on the entire history of the world. |
In an excellent article published August 17, 2010 in the Hartford Advocate, Alan Bisbort focuses on why Connecticut’s war on drug is a failure. The article addresses the issue of whether drugs should be legalized, and gives a voice to supporters of legalization. Whether one is pro- or anti- legalization, the article poses a question that might cause one to pause for consideration.
Speaking about former president Bill Clinton’s admission that he tried marijuana in college, and former president George Bush’s suggestion in a recorded conversation that he, too, once smoked marijuana, Dr Robert Painter asks, “Would their lives have been improved if they had been caught and given a year in prison?”
That question gave birth to a query of other famous drug users in history, and the list found on www.erowid.com was both long and fascinating.
Clinton and Bush were not the only politicians who took a toke or a snort. Grover Cleveland used cocaine, as did Ulysses S. Grant. Al Gore and beloved patriot Ben Franklin used cannabis. Presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader also used pot. Former British Prime Minister Anthony Edan admitted to using amphetamines during a crisis.
Cannabis users in the field of music include, but is not limited to, the Beatles and Louis Armstrong. Scientist Carl Sagan and Prince Harry have cannabis usage in common. Users of opiates, and its derivatives, include Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Charles Dickens, Dan Rather, Rush Limbaugh, Ben Franklin, and Queen Victoria. Author Robert Louis Stevenson ,who also used morphine, wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde during a six day coke run.
Had all of the above been subjected to arrest and sentencing under today’s mandatory minimum law, perhaps world history might have been changed; sonnets never written, humanitarian aid never given, music never created or performed, voices silenced, creativity caged. We will never know. But we do know that thousands of non-famous, non-violent people are in prison today because of antiquated and sometimes unjust drug laws. The next Picasso (opium), Steve jobs (LSD, cannabis), Cole Porter (opium, cocaine), or Yeats (hashish) may be languishing in prison, muse silenced. Sigmund Freud (cocaine) might have pondered if sometimes a law is just a law, and not the solution.
|
|
|
|
