October 5, 2011
I watched the latest Ken Burns PBS Special “Prohibition”, and so appreciated the style and attention to detail he and his associates pour into their work. As with “The Civil War”, “Baseball” and the others, they told the story with a passionate regard for the details. They made me feel some of the emotions of the “drys” and some of the emotions of the “wets”. They made sure we heard quotes from the famous players who made the deal go down along with the ‘regular’ or ‘real people’ who told the everyday stories so this everyday guy could feel close to how it really must have been.
As I sat engrossed, listening to and watching what seemed to me was the big picture of those thirteen or so years, my thoughts kept returning to the same thing that runs through my mind every time I read in the paper or see another magazine type show on TV about the drug wars that have been fought since the repeal of the 18th Amendment.
The one thing “Prohibition” kept going back to is how the criminals became organized during that time. One who was once a thief or a cheat became a bootlegger and/or a murderer. What at one time was at best a loose collection of “families” became powerful, well funded armies with all the protocol of a military some counties would envy.
As it always happens, when there is a demand there will be a supply. It is the simple economics of a free enterprise system most of us are so proud of. We should not be surprised to see the products of such a system. One part of the system likes to have a beer, another part of the system wants to sell that beer. It works really very well when we all know what’s going on and we all get a piece of the action, and whether you get your piece directly or indirectly is not the point. The point is the rule of law is kept in the equation. The tax on the product is the teetotalers piece. The beer is the consumers part and the profit on that beer is the dealers part. The farmer who grows the hops or corn or grapes or whatever part he grows is in the mix. The bottler who makes the bottle makes his or hers. The gas station owner who sells the gas to the truck driver who bought the truck from the dealership that bought its showroom from the construction company owner who...........It’s not hard for me to get the point here. It doesn’t seem like it would be hard for anybody to not get the point.
It’s when the supply and demand goes underground that the whole thing turns to shit. There is still the demand. There is still the supply. But as the documentary so vividly points out, the rule of law isn’t there to make sure we are all included. Instead of the Teetotaler getting in on the deal with a wisp of tax here and a breeze of a better road there, the “family” gets to have the whole gust. And a bitter wind it is. If those folks feel like they want to have things more to their liking, and if you don’t like what they want, well, you more than likely will end up on the bad side of an automatic weapon as opposed to opposite sides of a courtroom. I always heard if you don’t learn from history you are condemned to repeat it. We have been repeating and repeating and repeating ever since the 21st Amendment was passed. Making the same ‘ol thugs rich as Midas.
I know you know where I’m going with this. Still, I can’t help it. It seems as plain as the nose on your face. ( I would have said nose on my face, but since I’ve never really seen it in its entirety...sorry) So it isn’t beer or wine or whiskey, it’s pot and cocaine and all the other pharmacopoeia that we humans can’t seem to do without. There is a portion of the public that is going to supply the demand and another that is going to demand the supply. One way or another the two factions will find each other and the transactions will take place. I know it will happen because it does every day. It’s called living history.
I, for one, would like to take a cue from the history made during the prohibition era. The cue is....... it didn’t work.
I think we should get rid of the “middle man” that we have today and install the same “middle man” we have for tobacco and alcohol. After all, doesn’t it seem like if we can have tobacco we can have pretty much anything? Does to me. Some people will smoke a carton a day and some will have just one or two cigarettes. Some will smoke pot till you wonder how they function and others will be high as a cat’s back with just one poke. People who get into hard drugs, needle drugs and the like, may be better able to get off of them if the mystique of these drugs is disabled. It doesn’t seem very romantic to go a florescent bulb lighted room at a doctor’s office and get “high”. Seems more like a down to me. Anyway, all this kind of talk is on the mechanical side of this thought train and not on track with what I’m trying to relate.
What I am trying to relate is I am always dumbfounded to hear politicians say they can’t endorse legalizing drugs even though the drugs are everywhere anyway and are heaping mountains of trouble on the good people of this country. You’d think as much as our elected officials seem to love money they’d be all over this thing. Get you some of this stuff Ladies and Gentlemen, there is plenty to go around!
Just to be clear, I don’t condone the use of recreational drugs. Legal or otherwise. I know first hand the consequences of overindulgence. But I also know drugs are going to be used and cause consequences. It’s the way it is and the way it always will be. I accept that. I don’t accept that criminals should be made wealthy because well meaning people who have a ‘best interest at heart’ can’t come to grips with the basic law of supply and demand.
There are reams that have been written about this and volumes that have been spoken. No doubt it will go on a long time. For me, my mind is made up and I don’t see me changing it at this point.
I’m rambling on again. That’s why I called this section of the website Keith’s Ramblings. If you want, write me and expound on this or any subject. As the great Led Zeppelin said, Ramble on......
