http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-10/propaganda-is-the-most-dangerous-drug
The world's elder statesmen have a problem when it comes to drug policy. They are increasingly coming out in favor of broad legalization, but their message is having a hard time getting through thanks to decades of anti-drug propaganda from the governments in which they participated.
The voting public isn't nearly as progressive. Uruguay's recent marijuana legalization plan -- cited in the report as a positive example -- is now in danger of collapsing because 64 percent of Uruguayans oppose it. In the U.S., where a majority supports marijuana legalization, most would draw the line at permitting other psychoactive substances. According to recent Huffington Post/YouGov polls, 83 percent oppose the legalization of cocaine and LSD, and 79 percent support the ban on methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Support for their legalization is in the single digits.
The world's elder statesmen have a problem when it comes to drug policy. They are increasingly coming out in favor of broad legalization, but their message is having a hard time getting through thanks to decades of anti-drug propaganda from the governments in which they participated.
The voting public isn't nearly as progressive. Uruguay's recent marijuana legalization plan -- cited in the report as a positive example -- is now in danger of collapsing because 64 percent of Uruguayans oppose it. In the U.S., where a majority supports marijuana legalization, most would draw the line at permitting other psychoactive substances. According to recent Huffington Post/YouGov polls, 83 percent oppose the legalization of cocaine and LSD, and 79 percent support the ban on methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Support for their legalization is in the single digits.
These public prejudices were shaped when the retired politicians who make up most of the commission were in power. Whatever their private opinions might have been, they had no appreciable effect on the policies of governments, which delivered relentless anti-drug propaganda that the media bought and carried.
Perhaps propaganda is the most dangerous drug of all. The U.S. Congress appeared to understand its corrosive effects back in the 1970s, when it banned the distribution on U.S. soil of government-funded propaganda from outlets such as Voice of America (the law isno longer in force). The no-holds-barred war of lies between the governments of Russia and Ukraine shows propaganda machines maintain their deadly effectiveness even today.
Governments' power to influence public opinion should be restricted as tightly as the most dangerous drugs, and free media -- where they still exist -- need to pay special attention to how they relay government messages. Otherwise, when officials grow older and decide something was done wrong, their wisdom will fall on deaf ears.
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