by Steven Walker

Created on: January 23, 2009

Many years ago while still a young aggressive military officer I attended a briefing at the University of Virginia Law school. I was a member of an intelligence agency at the time and the information I was about to hear was classified . It was a time when the military was interested in stopping the many drugs coming into the United States of America. In fact, we had a General in charge of the Southern command and his responsibility was to intercept and stop many of the drugs coming in to the United States. The major drug at the time was something called cocaine, mostly coming out of Columbia and I had just completed some research concerning the production of cocaine. Big pits were dug in the ground lined with plastic and kerosene was dumped on the many pounds of cocaine leaves. The alkaloid's floated to the surface of the kerosene. The alkaloids were then made into balls of paste and shipped off to different locations to be refine. Many of the precursor chemicals needed to refine cocaine came from Dow chemical company. Thousands of 55 gallon barrels came through ports of embarkation from US ports into Columbia. As I listened I sat back into my chair and wondered if we were trying to stop the flow of cocaine into the U.S. why did we allow shipment of the precursor chemicals needed in the manufacture and refining of cocaine. Foolishly, I asked the question. The response I received was if we didn't give them the chemicals some other country would benefit from the selling of the precursor chemicals. I then asked why didn't we simply track the precursor chemicals and see where they led us; follow the chemicals and defeat the cocaine enemy. My commanding officer at the time kicked the back of my chair and gave me a stern look, his eyes implying that I should stop asking impertinent questions. I cannot get into the specifics of what was discussed that afternoon, but I can discuss your question" Is there an underlying culture of racism in the war on drugs?"

As I get older, I often smile at the stupidity of undereducated and uninformed people. When I hear or see ill-founded questions of conspiracies against other cultures I shake my head in disbelief. I could write a 100 page report on this particular subject ,but I do not have the inclination, desire or time to do that. I will leave that to the people interested in the subject and let them do their own research.

What we discussed at the meeting was rather interesting and not what you would expect. We talked about the Kennedy family and how they made their millions on prohibition liquor. We discussed in detail that the Kennedy family is not looked upon with disdain, because they made their money in an illegal way. Most people don't care, don't know about the Kennedy past, or just believe it is ancient history. Most news media ignore the issue, because illicit alcohol and drugs were something part of their life in the past. Most of the people who were in the room with me that day believed and agreed that our government allowed drugs in our country so disadvantaged cultures could benefit from the money, just like the Kennedys. A way for poor people to make money when other other doors had been closed to them. Something along the line of allowing Indians to own casinos.

I don't think this is what you expected from this article... but it's the truth. You're very question, is the drug war, racism, tells me that you think it's all right for poor people to take drugs and sell drugs in order to survive. Maybe your government feels the same way. I personally believe if our government wanted to eradicate drugs, it could do it tomorrow. If you personally think our government can not win the war on drugs you are wrong. Take it from me.

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