Ending the drug war

Dismantle all "kubols" in Munti built by moneyed inmates? Why not build more to reward those showing good conduct? We should alleviate prison conditions, if slowly, and provide incentives, not equalize the oppression and democratize suffering. Ailing seniors should be given priority. OK, I am 76.

We should look at suspended sentences, night, weekend or community service, expanded use of probation, and liberalized treatment of the elderly. In Spain and Italy, no jail time for septuagenarians, but maybe service in old men's homes, benefiting convicted Premier Berlusconi. We should institutionalize house arrest in a system where finality of judgments takes decades.

Ailing, ageing GMA should be in her home.

On drug convicts, the Philippines must now prepare and identify a national consensus for a UN General Assembly session on decriminalizing ALL drugs, in 2016, this year. See "It's Time to End the Drug War - A major new report makes the case for decriminalizing illicit drugs - all of them." Joining Milton Friedman and William Buckley, global notables like Jimmy Carter, George Shultz, Kofi Annan, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ernesto Cedillo, Vicente Fox, Richard Branson, Mario Vargas Llosa, Felipe Gonzalez, et al., vocally support decriminalization. Time, Sept. 29, 2014, p. 44.

It may take time but there is momentum.

Portugal decriminalized all drugs 15 years ago. It hasn't disintegrated. Drug use in fact may have gone down as the challenge or appeal of the forbidden is gone for the daring young and his barkada.

Illicit drugs users are not criminals who belong in jail which destroys futures; they are sick, and belong in hospitals and rehab centers, to be treated and saved.

Decriminalization will remove the profit motive. As government will supply the drugs, traffickers' wares will remain unsold. Trafficking should stop along with Bilibid scandals.

Government will supply the drugs, free or at cost, ruining the drug trade. The anti-drug budget can go to rehab.

Perhaps we can start with marijuana, particularly medical, and even recreational, an emerging trend. Spain does it through cannabis clubs. Colorado earns substantial sums in another form of sin tax.

Billions are spent and wasted to fight traffickers. It is a spectacularly failed policy. The money can be reallocated for reform and treatment of the sick and other uses. Harsh treatment of drug offenders has not really worked in China, which executes drug convicts, including Pinoy drug mules, casually, because of the humongous profit motive. Same here, or in Colombia or Mexico. Let's remove it then and prepare for the 2016 UN meet.

Bill Clinton, Dubya Bush and Barack Obama all experimented with Mary Jane in their youth. They could have been ruined by prison. What about their misjudgments in Monica Lewinsky, Iraq, ISIS and health care? No fair. Next question.

In 1983, I wrote "Who's Afraid of Mary Jane?" and got calls telling me what the callers thought of me and my ancestors. 2016 is not 1983.

Though it's been said many times many ways, for you kids out there, from one to 92, HAPPY NEW YEAR!