Thread by @elsthomson

Moral Contradictions of the War on Drugs. THREAD 🧵

1.

We know policing increases drug harms

but increase police funding for drug enforcement.

#SupportDontPunish

2.

We move mountains to find viral vaccines

but won't push paper to release replacements for contaminated drugs.

#SupportDontPunish

3.

We ritualize and fetishize alcohol and coffee

but criminalize traditions for opium and coca.

#SupportDontPunish

4.

We train floodlights on crime stats for supervised consumption sites

but won't hold a candle up to the addiction treatment industry.

#SupportDontPunish

5.

We shed tears over unmarked residential school graves

but shed responsibility as Indigenous people bear the brunt of drug harms.

#SupportDontPunish

6.

We embrace harm reduction for sexual education

but keep pushing abstinence for drug uneducation.

#SupportDontPunish

7.

We mobilize for pharmacare to cover the drugs we need

but stop short on the safe supply needed by others.

#SupportDontPunish

8.

We know people who use drugs fear police

but dispatch police to drug poisonings anyway.

#SupportDontPunish

9.

We react violently on being told to calm down when we're upset

but send police with guns to mental health episodes.

#SupportDontPunish

10.

We loudly denounce capital punishment

but jail people for drugs while Death waits outside.

#SupportDontPunish

11.

We blame and jail people in the drug economy

but let employers discriminate against people who use drugs.

#SupportDontPunish

12.

We fund police access to analytical equipment for busts

but not public access to the same equipment for safety.

#SupportDontPunish

13.

We talk about supporting the worker

but ignore that a quarter of drug deaths are in the trades.

#SupportDontPunish

14.

We fund oil pipelines to nowhere

but close the valve on safe supply.

#SupportDontPunish

15.

We cut red ribbons for private addiction treatment centres

but tie red tape around public harm reduction services.

#SupportDontPunish

16.

We connect the dots on street violence and the drug trade

but trade logic for copaganda when prohibition comes up.

#SupportDontPunish

17.

We write endless books and studies about organized crime

but could simply trade it in for organized labour.

#SupportDontPunish

18.

We holler about drug money laundering in casinos

but look the other way when Gaming lands us in the black.

#SupportDontPunish

19.

We insist people take personal responsibility for drugs

but create conditions in which heavy drug use is all too rational.

#SupportDontPunish

20.

We create conditions impossible to raise children

but blame drugs when they're forcibly removed.

#SupportDontPunish

21.

We celebrate community builders who cater to the privileged

but subsidize community destroyers who displace the underprivileged.

#SupportDontPunish

22.

We all use drugs for pain or pleasure

but we socially murder those who do so in despair.

#SupportDontPunish

23.

We say we want drugs off our streets

but turned our back on the streets long ago.

#SupportDontPunish

If you enjoyed this future children's book, stay in touch and follow everyone I retweet.

Find your local advocacy group for people who use drugs, housing or sex workers and support them with your time or money.

And if you have your own contradictions to add, please do ⬇️

One courtesy of the brilliant @Patty__Wilson:

We say "think of the children"

but strip their human rights under mental health forms and coerced treatment

https://twitter.com/capeannsky/status/1540045080622518273?s=20&t=J2_oT2rHvRkREqm1hF0aZA