Starting on April 2 the New Detroit Science Center will host "Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause."
According to the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, "The exhibit, created by the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum, focuses on terrorism, the consequences of drug use and drug trafficking. There are interactive displays, including methamphetamine lab, kiosks, and artifacts from Ground Zero and the Pentagon. "Target America" will be on display until October 2, 2005."
My question is: What's the point?
To begin with, who is going to visit this exhibit? Teenagers who smoke pot on the weekends? Drugdealers? People who already think that doing drugs is probably a bad idea? Who is this exhibit aimed at and who will comprise the majority of its audience?
Next question: Is this exhibit going to stop people from doing drugs? In my opinion: NO! For one thing, most people in the USA do not act on ethical grounds when it comes to consumption. Most people buy clothing that they know was made in sweatshops or from companies with gross labor practices. They leave the lights on when they are not in the room and drive when they could walk (when they know that our nation's dependency on oil is unhealthy and most definitely supporting undemocratic and racist regimes around the world.)
Connecting the War on Drugs (stupid stupid term) with the War on Terrorism (probably also a stupid stupid term) brings some benefit to the current administration by giving it leeway to pursue stronger policies against drug dealers and users, and by enabling a justification of the continuation of programs like aerial spraying of farms on Colombia (which usually destroys small agricultural farms and fails to hit the big drug producers). In the end however, a public relations campaign for the merging of the two wars (and the very fact that they have been declared 'wars') will not effect drug consumption in the United States nor will it successfully stem the flow of money to terrorist organizations.
I leave you with this tidbit from a Debate and Conflict paper entitled "Merging Wars: Afganistan, Drugs and Terrorism" published by the Transnational Institute in November of 2001. I'd like to put the whole thing here (as there are many other valid points within the paper) but I'll let you follow the links instead.
"The anti-terrorist strategy with respect to drugs is: less drugs, less resources for terrorists. As a result, the anti-terrorist war would require escalating the war on drugs. In practice, though, the two wars are not very compatible. Addressing a legislative panel in mid October, DEA-Chief, Asa Hutchinson, complained that the US government's emphasis on terrorism was allowing South American drug dealers to introduce more drugs into the US through the Caribbean. Both the DEA and the US Coast Guard have had to displace staff from anti-narcotics duty to the strike against terrorism. Other state officials and independent analysts alike have also noted that the Pentagon's military actions in Afghanistan and the war against terrorism on US soil may hamper anti-drugs efforts."
~bEckY
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