More Failings of the Government’s Drug Policies

Last week brought us two more prime examples of where our national drug policies are failing.

1. A recent UC San Francisco study found that cocaine can rewire the brain after just one use. Once exposed to cocaine, the frontal lobe of the brain (responsible for desicion making) begins to create new dendrites along pathways that further increase the desire to get more cocaine. This explains why cocaine is so highly addictive. Why is this a failing of US drug policy? Because under current federal designation, cocaine is less serious (Schedule II) than cannabis (Schedule I). I know there aren’t too many rational people out there who would try to argue that cocaine is safe and I’m certainly not either; but it’s sheer madness that a substance that so rapidly and radically alters your brain chemistry (and comes with a relatively high percentage of addiction/overdose potential) garners less governmental scrutiny than cannabis.

2. Drug testing welfare applicants has been a tumultuous political issue, even more so lately. I suspect it’s a way of “winning a point” politically now that legalization is looming as a greater possibility every day. The state of Utah began screening welfare applicants in August of 2012. As of July 2013, they pre-screened 4,750 applicants. Upon scrutinizing, the state decided to proceed with drug screenings on 466 applicants. After spending $31,000 of the state’s money giving UI’s to assumed junkies in a witch hunt aimed at not wasting the state’s money on junkies (sarcasm fully intended), they found a whopping 12 positive applicants. Do you think, perhaps, a few families in Utah could have made better use of $31,000?

I’m all for more egg on the government’s face if they continue to adhere to outdated, irrational and, in some cases, blatantly dishonest policies.