Weed is for Degenerates

Delving deeper into the War on Drugs with John Paul Barber

Mr. Barber, please give the readers a little background of your personal experience of Uncle Sam's War on Drugs, your arrest for selling cocaine, trial, and so on.

There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about my arrest. I was set up by one of my customers who was trying to get out of some trouble he was in. I didn't go to trial, I took a plea bargain for 75 months. If I'd went to trial and lost I'd have probably gotten 15-20 years. The sentences are so stiff on the federal level, only an idiot would opt for a jury trial.

Other than a few mouthy black female prison guards, I never had any trouble or was treated unfairly by law enforcement or the federal prison system. The worst part about my incarceration was being a White minority in a majority black prison. I had to constantly be on my toes. Most blacks assume Whites won't fight back. They assumed wrong with me. I spent a significant amount of time in solitary confinement for fighting. Eventually I learned to prefer solitary over general population because I could actually relax in there. As glamorous as it looks on the big screen, playing Tarzan is no fun in real life.

I understand a close relative of yours has struggled with drug addiction. Can you tell us how this has affected your family?

Yes, I have a close relative who had a terrible problem with methamphetamine and opiates. It was an awful thing to watch and I'm 100% confident she's suffered permanent brain damage from all the abuse she put her body through. Even though she's been clean for five or six years now, she's still not the same upstairs. I actually have quite a few relatives with drug and alcohol problems. I do believe there's a genetic component to addiction but I don't think addiction is a "disease" as the medical and psychiatric community would have you believe. Some people are just born with stronger levels of will power than others. You either have a strong mind or a weak mind. Although I've experimented with drugs in my younger days I never had an addiction problem like some of my relatives who I share genetic traits with. Whenever I felt like something was getting in the way of me taking care of my responsibilities, I stopped doing it. My guilt overpowered my hedonism. If only my guilt had overpowered my greediness, I wouldn't have sold poison to my people and went to prison.

Years ago a group of researchers did a study where they put a child in a room with their favorite candy bar. They told the child they were going to leave the room and come back later. They gave the child two options: 1) The child could eat the candy bar right then or 2) The child could choose not to eat the candy bar right then and wait until the adult came back. If they hadn't eaten the candy bar, then the child would get a second candy bar. This was a test to see how well these children could delay gratification for a greater long term payoff. Then these researchers followed the children into adulthood to see what choices they made in life. Almost exclusively, the children who had the ability to delay gratification did well in school, didn't get on drugs, didn't go to jail, got good jobs, and had a higher overall quality of life. The opposite was true for almost all of the children who ate the candy bar immediately.

This study gives us a window inside the human mind and how it works. In my opinion, most people who grew up to be drug addicts would have gobbled up that candy bar before the adult had even gotten the door shut. So, are some people more genetically prone to addiction? I think yes, but there's not an "addiction" gene. Just mental weaklings.

What is your approach to child rearing with respect to drugs. Have you been open with your children about your experience and other family members' experiences?

My children are still too young to understand what drugs are. They know what taking medicine means but I don't think they could comprehend the concept of "getting high." I have told my oldest daughter that I've been to jail before but I just told her it was because I broke the law and was acting bad. I do plan on explaining to my children about my past when they get older. I wouldn't be much of a father if I didn't. Maybe hearing some of my stories will help prevent them from straying down the same path I did.

The quantity and power of drugs available, opiates in particular, cannot be compared with alcohol, to which humans have thousands of years of exposure, or other naturally occurring drugs which historically have been rather hard to come by and less potent. You touched on this in your earlier letter, is there some balance to be achieved between prohibition and drugs free-for-all?

As I stated in my original letter you previously posted, law enforcement should take a hands off approach to drug dealing and using within the US. Still keep it illegal on the books and leave it as an underground activity but just don't enforce the drug laws. It hasn't done a bit of good with regard to deterrence. We have worse drug abuse problems now than ever before and have spent trillions of dollars after 40 years of the drug war. Law enforcement would have better results going after these drug addicts for committing thefts and other crimes to support their habits. We need harsh penalties for this kind of behavior.

It's more effective and efficient to use our resources to cut off the supply coming into the United States. I mentioned The Wall on the Mexican border as being a good example of something that would have a big impact on cutting off supply lines.

Another huge problem we have is Fentanyl coming into the country from China. A lot of it is coming in through the mail. There has to be some way for the federal government to crack down on this. Having drug dogs sniffing every package coming in from China could be done for a fraction of the money we spend going after junkies and dope peddlers.

We also need more drug interdiction at our ports. Cargo containers from all over the world are coming in by the multitudes every day with God knows what inside. Not only is this a good argument against free trade and globalization, but it's also something that needs to come under extreme scrutiny by the DEA and Customs agents. Another example of how resources could be allocated toward something that would produce results instead of filling up our prisons with junkies and dealers.

Do you think cannabis should get special consideration, as is now becoming widespread politically?

Marijuana legalization isn't something I dwell on a lot. That ship has already sailed. More and more states are legalizing it and I see that trend continuing. The Bible Belt will be the last region of the country to go along with it, but they'll eventually succumb since their state legislators won't be able to resist the sales tax revenue that can be generated from pot sales.

Personally, I think weed is for degenerates and I don't care what the latest study at Pothead U says, it is harmful to you long term. It makes people have a "don't give a fuck" attitude that leads to less productivity over time. That said, I think we do need to stress to our youth that there's a big difference between marijuana and hard drugs and how they affect your life. We tell kids don't do drugs, and that all drugs are bad. Well, most of them will smoke pot at some point as teenagers and they think "Hey, this isn't such a big deal. They must've been lying to me about all those other drugs too. I think I'll try this heroin. I bet it's no big deal either."

Do you think there are larger economic incentives at play? Junkies are revenue units for all sorts of medical and social services. Pharmaceutical companies benefit from replacement drugs and all sorts of auxiliary drugs.

Yes, I do think there are larger economic interests at play. The obvious ones are, as you mentioned pharmaceutical, medical, and social services. Also the prison and law enforcement sectors base most of their business model on our drug laws. Since most politicians are attorneys, they don't have any incentive to get their tentacles out of this system either. All their buddies still practicing law are making a killing negotiating plea bargains for drug crimes.

We also have our US military protecting the poppy fields in Afghanistan. When the Taliban were in charge, poppy farming was outlawed and punishable by death. Why are we not only allowing poppy farming but encouraging and promoting it? Always remember that the #1 national security issue for the US government is maintaining the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. It's our greatest strength. I'm assuming we've brokered the same deal with Afghan cartels that we brokered with Saudi oil sheiks: We'll provide you with military protection but you can only accept US dollars for your product. This keeps our currency in use and in demand and prolongs dollar hegemony.

But the largest economic interest is one most people probably don't realize. The liquidity provided by organized crime/drug cartels to the financial sector is huge. Without black market economic activity (most of which is drug related) the global economy would probably collapse. In fact, during the 2008 financial crisis, drug money was the only liquid cash available. It's probably what kept us from falling into total ruin.

Thank you so much for your valuable perspective, John Paul Barber.

-Lynn

(c) 2017 Lynn Lockhart & John Paul Barber

Conscripted in the Drug War

John Paul Barber is a reader and a listener who was arrested 20 years ago for selling cocaine and served time in federal prison.  He lives in Appalachia and has seen the casualties of the opiates crisis first hand. 

Hey Lynn,

You mentioned in your email you were surprised that I'd been in federal prison. I'm not exactly sure what you meant but I assume you meant you were surprised my crime was serious enough to warrant federal attention [yes, this is what I meant]. Well, most people wouldn't think it warranted federal attention. I was only 19 years old when I got busted so I hadn't been alive long enough to be a kingpin or anything. At first my charges were only state charges, but after about six months the local authorities turned my case over to the Feds by putting me on a conspiracy indictment with six other guys. I only knew one of them. The reason they do this is because federal sentencing guidelines are way more harsh than state guidelines. It looks better in the local newspaper and on the cops' resumes if the crooks they bust get lengthy prison sentences. If my charges had stayed at the state level, I would've most likely gotten probation as a first-time offender. Instead I received 75 months in prison plus 5 years of probation upon release. I also had a $40,000 drug tax that I owed. I never paid it. I just had bad credit for ten years until it came off my credit report. The group they put me on the conspiracy case with was the first time my local officials turned a drug case over to the Feds. Apparently it worked well for them because they did it to about a hundred more drug dealers after that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make any kind of excuses or portray that I was treated unfairly by the authorities. I knew I was breaking the law and there were consequences for that. At the time though, I didn't realize the consequences could be so severe. I played with fire and got burnt and I take full responsibility for it. I also learned a very valuable lesson... easy money is rarely ever worth it. The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.

Like I said before, the drug war issue was what first got me interested in politics. With all that time on my hands I had plenty of opportunity to think about things. I became curious as to how a 19 year old kid who'd never been in trouble before could get six years in prison for selling somebody something they wanted. A friend of mine in prison loaned me a book called Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do (The Absurdity Of Consensual Crimes In Our Free Country) by Peter McWilliams. Peter was a fag who died of AIDS and lymphoma. He got in trouble for growing over 4,000 pot plants that he distributed to co-ops for medical marijuana patients.

Anyway, I read that book and quickly became an advocate for drug legalization and also took several other libertarian political positions. As I've gotten older my views have changed quite a bit. With regard to drug legalization I had an a-ha moment about eight or ten years ago when it dawned on me what the results would be. Most all of the violence associated with illegal drugs in America is perpetrated by blacks and Hispanics. So what would these people do if dope started being sold in stores like cigarettes and alcohol? Do you think they'd all go get jobs and become fine upstanding citizens? Hell no, they'd start robbing, extorting, and kidnapping for a living if they couldn't make money selling dope. At least in the drug business most of the violence is limited to other participants in the drug game. Them killing each other is a eugenics program as far as I'm concerned. Regular folks would be the main ones targeted for robbery, extortion, and kidnapping in a world of legalized drugs.

Advocates for drug legalization usually bring up the fact that drugs used to be legal in America many years ago and we didn't have anywhere near the problems with it that we do today. This is true. You could go to a pharmacy and buy cocaine and morphine if you wanted it. But it was also when we were a 90% White, Christian country. I live in majority White Appalachia where we have some of the highest drug addiction rates per capita in the country. Yet we have hardly any violent crime. Sure we have plenty of breaking and enterings and petty theft, but people here aren't killing each other in the streets over dope. There's not a trailer park full of junkies in my whole county that I wouldn't feel safe walking through by myself or with you or anyone else. That said, I'm not even going to entertain the thought of drug legalization in a White ethnostate. Anybody who thinks a White ethnostate is ever going to happen in America needs to be drug tested themselves.

Yes, it's true that Big Pharma, Politicians, and Law Enforcement have big-time interests in keeping the system the way it is. But at the end of the day, nobody's forcing drug addicts to put that poison in their bodies. They do it by their own hand. It's a two-way street and where there's a demand, a supply will always be met. I blame a decay in overall moral character as the biggest cause of America's drug problem. I'm not all that religious but I'll be the first to admit most drug addicts need Jesus more than they need rehab.

So what kind of solutions do I propose? Well, as you can guess, definitely not legalization. However, the drug war itself is a total joke and a waste of time. I think drugs should remain technically illegal and kept as an underground activity because at least the dangerous element of it will deter some people from getting involved in drugs. At the same time, I also think law enforcement should take a hands off approach toward drug dealing and drug buying. Kinda like how we treat sodomy laws today. It's technically illegal in a lot of states to be a faggot but nobody gets arrested for it. Selling drugs is a great jobs program for the black and Hispanic community and keeps them from committing more real crimes against regular folks who aren't involved in the drug trade. And let's face it, what race of people are more genetically suited to deal with pathetic junkies than black drug dealers? A junkie needs to deal with some swarthy, aggressive thug who'd just as soon shoot you in the face as tell you the time of day. Maybe it'll discourage some of these addicts from further pursuing such a degenerate lifestyle.

Cops should focus their time and resources toward going after criminals (including drug addicts) who are committing real crimes against people and property. And these criminals should be severely punished for it. I'm totally ok with public floggings and bringing back chain gangs. Regular prison is just another massive welfare program and it isn't a deterrent for a lot of folks, especially blacks. It's like a big family reunion for most of them because half of their cousins are in there too. The only thing they're missing out on in prison is women and that's not a big deal for a lot of blacks. They'll turn "prison gay" like it's nothing. A hole and a heartbeat is the only requirement that's needed, a heartbeat being optional in some cases.

The vast majority of our illegal drugs (pot, meth, cocaine, and heroin) come in through the Mexican border so the greatest deterrent for drug trafficking would be THE FUCKING WALL!!! Put gun turrets on The Wall, bring some of our soldiers home from protecting the borders of other countries, and give them orders to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross or smuggle anything across that border. That would put a huge dent in the supply of drugs into this country.

Our other big problem is prescription painkillers. That's going to have to be a political solution that will take a strong hand and a lot of will power that most likely doesn't exist. Big Pharma is one hell of a powerful lobby. I don't believe in some grand conspiracy to drug the population to make us all mindless automatons. Greed is what drives these people. More profits, higher stock prices, more funding for law enforcement, etc. Add that to the centuries-old desire of humans to alter their consciousness and you have this giant feedback loop that fuels our appetite for drugs. I really don't know what a solution would be for that or if there even is a solution. We live in a culture of instant gratification where there's a pill for anything that ails you. A major cultural shift in moral values is probably the only thing that can cure our addiction to prescription pills.

Lynn, I hope this helps you understand my thoughts on America's drug problem.

PS: Tell James thanks for passing along Narco-Night Train. I'm about 50 pages into it and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Great stories. James has mastered the art of description. Other than smelling bodily fluids I feel like I'm riding Baltimore public transportation when I'm reading these tales.

Thank you, Mr. Barber, I agree with much that you have stated here.  I appreciate your perspective as someone who has been there, in more ways than one.

(c) 2017 John Paul Barber