Everybody hates Drug Dealers

In my internet travels I came across an excellent drug law reform blog called Drug War Rant. After discovering it, I read the content and decided to link it. Last night I stumbled upon his FAQ entitled "Why Should I support Reform?" The gist of the FAQ is wonderful, I really think the drug reform movement has done a terrible job of getting non-drug-users to care about this issue. Unfortunately there is this idea that the Drug War only effects drug-users.

However I have a huge problem with the last question:

Q: I am an illegal drug dealer. Why should I support drug policy reform?

Actually, you shouldn't support drug policy reform.

Drug legalization would put you out of a job, and take away all your profits. In order to continue to sell drugs, you'd have to become a business person, pay taxes, follow regulations, stop selling to kids, make sure your product is not tainted, and a bunch of other things that would make life very annoying for you.

Who would buy drugs from you illegally, if they can get what they need from legal, safe sources? You'd be like some pathetic beer salesman trying to sell black market six-packs of Budweiser on the corner. People would look at you like you're an idiot.

Forget the quick big bucks. Now you'll have to get a job, probably starting at a fast-food place because you don't have a real resume, and you'll have to work your way up like everyone else. Since you didn't finish school, it'll be harder.

Sorry.

This forces me to consider some very important questions. Are all illegal drug dealers evil? Do they sell a shoddy product to children? Do all drug dealers lack real jobs and education? I learned in grade 7 that anybody that passes a joint could be arrested for drug trafficking. This was proven to be a valid definition of drug dealer when we enlightened Saskatonians threw cannabis crusader and drug dealing lowlife, Marc Emery in the slammer for two months for passing a joint. That dude has done a lot for the cannabis reform movement and yet he is considered a drug dealer. This also means that me and every single person that I have shared pot with over the years is a drug dealer. Every member of the SKMP, most of my adult friends and acquaintances, a large number of the adult members of my family, co-workers, teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and college professors are all drug dealers. By this twisted logic, that means that every single person that passes a joint, accepts a joint, splits an ounce with a friend to reduce the cost, gives a joint to a friend who has PMS cramps or sells pot to their grateful friends is a drug dealer. This is a pretty broad definition and it means that 46.1% of the American public and 45.5% of the Canadian public are drug dealers.

So why do drug warriors spend so much time portraying drug dealers as unwashed, needle-sharing, diseased, homeless, morally and financially bankrupt junkies? The gateway theory teaches this common fear as though it were a fact. All drug users start with "soft drugs" like tobacco, beer and marijuana and then end up as junkies. Why is the fear of drug users the driving force behind prohibition?

It seems that the majority of people interested in reforming our drug laws are those of us that have firsthand experience with drug dealers. It is those of us that have seen a marijuana garden firsthand, those of us that have participated in events like the Tokers' bowl or the Global Marijuana March or even just belonged to the silent minority of illegal drug users that realize that the demonization of drug dealers is just plain wrong.

The fact is growing marijuana properly is an art form, just like brewing fine wine. Just ask the likes of Ed Rosenthal or Jack Herer. Drug dealers are talented artisans as well as demonized scum. It is also a fact that without drug dealers the entire cannabis culture would cease to exist. I am extremely grateful to all the drug dealers that keep people like me with a supply of good quality pot.

You see most drug dealers have jobs, families, and would be very happy to pay taxes on our dirty, illegal habits. The current system, that a lot of us drug dealers want to change, prevents us from paying taxes. It supports the notion that there is something terribly wrong with our current way of ife. Smoking the occasional joint and sharing it with your friends is something that must be prevented at all costs. Our way of life is so dangerous and terrible that we must be prevented from harming ourselves by any violent means. Jail, fines and property seizures are all par for the course for the dirty drug dealers.

So, boys and girls, do you see how demonizing drug dealers like me and my friends plays right into the hands of the drug warriors and the prohibitionists? Do you see how harmful it is to embrace and encourage the idea that drug dealers are less than human? If drug users were seen as people it would be far more difficult to justify our continued persecution for enjoying the wrong plants. We have a lot in common with homosexuals. We need to throw open those closet doors and let people know that drug users are both people and make up 12% of the population.