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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