War on Drugs

For Those Missing In Reaction

In the darkest of jungles

I’ve hunted & collected

black market creatures

spawned from the crooked deals

of the well healed and concealed

criminal classes

riding high with Pablo & Carlos

in an altered cosmos

where the likes of Escobar

is some kind of super star

and heartbroken mothers

are left to clean up the mess

forever counting the cost

Prohibition …

that ransomware of despair

socially engineered

for the snow white culture

of a Walt Disney Production

by the Brother Big of dysfunction

A total and fatal epic failure

Economics, politics,

and the rod of state religion

. . . a system of prisons

From the Dragon’s Temple

hidden deep

in the golden triangle

I’ve seen the high priests

of ill-gotten wealth

low life War Lords

one and all

rise and fall

I’ve seen their mansions

built upon the rotting corpses

of mental health victims

pushed to the margins

all staked out

along the misty mountains

of Cocaína Columbia

About as much

as a poor boy can stand

I’ve heard the splashing sound

of blood hitting the ground

from the Pistola Americana

Just another F.B.I. delivery

crossing the border

That War on Drugs

financing a clandestine

dance of disorder

ever profitable for some

was never meant to be won

Isn’t it high time we did better?

~ David B. Redpath © 2018-21

Señor Waron d’Rugs . . .

plenty more where he came from

Snake hunting in Yucatan

. . . in the Tequila Sunshine

Photography;
David & Linda Redpath © 2018-21

115 thoughts on “War on Drugs”

      4. My Dear Friend, last year (May 22, 2020) I was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. I had tumors throughout my torso. . . the news gets much better, but when I received my death sentence, I started a blog I think you would enjoy. If you read it, you will need to start at the very beginning and read it as the story unfolds. The first post is: Your Number Is Up May 25, 2020 https://lovinglifetothelastdrop.blogspot.com/2020/05/when-people-find-out-their-last-chapter.html I am sending you a warm embrace. xoxo

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Civilization forever battling
      to death in a feudal Colosseum.
      Where Cold War Lords duel with
      living chess pieces in a heated frenzy.
      Peace and freedom no longer good
      for big business. Quite the opposite.
      Empires built on guns, greed, and
      the acquiescence of least resistance.
      Fellow travellers boasting of their
      privileged slave economy status.
      The National Socialist’s certainly
      got the train of social engineering
      running dead on time.
      And that railroad schedule fell into the
      grateful hands of triumphant victors.

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply

      1. It was strange.
        Earlier today I was thinking about the 1963 Vincent Price movie Diary of A Madman that was based on two of Guy de Maupassant’s short stories.
        Price plays a judge who sentences to death a murderer.
        The murderer says it was an evil spirit called a Horla that forced him to kill as the judge comes to see him in his cell.
        The murderer dies and the Horla enters the judge (Price) and he becomes a murderer.
        I was thinking today of how that movie is almost symbolic of what happened to the U.S. after World War II.
        It passes judgement on the Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and then it seems that whatever spirit was behind the Third Reich then entered the highest echelons of the U.S. government and U.S. society.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. I saw that movie many years ago, Chris.
        But like all good movies, you never forget.

        When the U.S. Air Force first joined the
        allied bombing campaign in WWII, it was
        most critical of the R.A.A.F. for dropping
        their bombs too high over Germany to be
        always accurate, and thereby running the
        risk of hitting civilian areas. The British
        pointed out that it was a strategic decision
        to kept their planes as clear as possible from
        German anti-aircraft fire. The Americans
        did not approve, and thereby lost far more
        aircraft flying lower to ensure accuracy.
        Interesting that by the end of the war,
        the U.S. was willing to drop two nuclear
        bombs on mainly civilian targets.

        Liked by 3 people

    2. Here, here! As if it wasn’t already clear to me that America’s War on Drugs has been a complete failure and pure waste of money both at home and abroad, living in Colombia reminds me of that fact each and every day.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Not to mention Rodrigo Duterte, and
        the obscene scene in the Philippines.
        30 thousand plus extrajudicial murders
        and counting, along with the innocent
        “collateral damage”. A war on poor
        people, who happen to use drugs.
        Thanks Henry, for the confirmation from
        your world view observations 🙏😎

        Like

  4. was never meant to be won indeed, not unlike most of the modern wars. the sound of blood hitting the ground is too feeble to register with the stakeholders.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

      2. I always hear Salt-N-Pepa singing Push it
        whenever I walk down Pennsylvania Avenue
        . . . or Wall Street. On the other hand, the
        Pentagon reverberates with Alice Cooper’s
        Welcome to My Nightmare.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Yes Watt. Even then it comes to dope
      on a rope, there is always hope.

      “Socialism, hypnotism,
      patriotism, materialism.
      Fools making laws
      for the breaking of jaws
      And the sound of the keys
      as they clink
      But there’s no time to think.”

      “Although the masters make the rules
      For the wise men and the fools
      I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.”
      ~ The Poet Laureate of Rock’n’Roll

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. You were pushing it!

        I just realized pagoda is not the right word. Now I am thinking ziggurat. Better stick to temple.

        And now I am thinking about the song Temple of Love, by a band whose name eludes me

        Liked by 3 people

      9. I was going to ask, but the Mayans had
        all gone to the coast for a Playa Cancún
        day trip in the Carribbean Sun.
        Anyway, Victoria,
        they serpently had lots of fun 😎
        As for the Aztecs,
        I don’t know where they went?
        Perhaps best ask Cortés & his conquistadors?

        Liked by 1 person

    1. After being handed the franchise
      by Tricky Dicky Nixon . . . by order
      of none other than Captain America.
      Banning Indian hemp was such
      a big success in saving American
      teenagers, and jazz singers,
      from reefer madness, why not ban
      that Mexican marching powder?
      . . . Nothing racist about that!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thank you, Scott 🙏
      It’s a subject I feel strongly about, having
      lived amongst the legally marginalised
      . . . and seeing the damage done.
      People with mental health issues, being
      treated as fodder for the privatised and
      ever profitable prison industry.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    1. Thanks Charlie. I’m all for the fundamental
      human rights of expression, belief, and to do
      stupid things. Human history is often an
      interesting combination of all three 😎
      I actually just use the camera on my Pixel 2
      phone, with the Snapseed app installed to
      process the pictures. Nice and simple.
      And no Apple. Which reminds me . . .

      “Does it help you smile
      more to wake up
      Make you happy just to be alive?
      Well I don’t know
      if it makes you happy
      But it must be healthy
      ‘Cause it’s certified.
      Banapple gas,
      oh Banapple gas
      All the world is breathing
      Banapple gas
      Oh oh alas!
      No one knows what’s inside it
      Banapple gas.” ~ Cat Stevens

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. Yes Charlie, I guess History is always
        trying to escape some kind of mess.
        Last time I saw History, he was slumped
        over a bottle of whiskey, trying to drown
        himself. His wife, Destiny, was beside
        herself . . . with grief.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Oh! wow! Dude, you should turn this what you replied to me into a poem. I’m serious.

        Write this poem into a surrealism of truth in what is happening in our world.

        The reference you made of history being drunk on whiskey its genius. And Destiny was beside herself with grief. Genius…and good. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. But telling teenagers not to try something,
      because it’s bad, always works so well.
      There is mounting evidence from countries
      where recreational drugs have been
      decriminalised that young people are less
      inclined to try and buy. It’s suddenly less
      cool when treated more as a medical and
      mental health issue. Plus much safer when
      production & distribution is taken out of
      the hands of criminals. Plus a luxury tax
      can help fund rehabilitation facilities.
      The police free to be public servants, not
      nanny state enforcers. In the U.S.there
      are police organisations advocating the
      cessation of the War on Drugs.
      In the last ten years of a concerted War
      on Drugs in Mexico, at the insistence of
      George W. Bush, some 130, 000 people
      have been killed, directly as a result.
      That’s police, soldiers, innocent bystanders
      . . . and criminals.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. I love how your photo art goes well with what you wrote. This one hits close to home for me. I’m surprised at the lengths someone you love will go to get their fix, nothing is sacred with them. So sad to me. Great post!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Sorry to hear, Michelle Marie.
      It is such a feeling of helplessness.
      To quote Neil Young, I’ve seen the needle
      . . . and the damage done.
      To think that evil people are profiting from
      such misery. That evil forces facilitate
      and ignorance perpetuates this failed,
      and broken down system . . .

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Wow I’ve never heard that. The State of Oklahoma is suing Johnson & Johnson for the Opioid disaster in this state they settled for $85 million. After the death of a teen. My daughter was prescribed 300 of them at one time and her doctor lost her license. It’s a huge deal these addictions so destructive. I know you know this just sharing that. 🙂 Meanwhile we put our lives back together. Huge lost of trust and boundaries have been crossed that can never be uncrossed. So sad actually.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. Why does your plight not surprise me?
        The same Johnson & Johnson that sold
        Baby Talcum Powder with asbestos in it?!
        It is no wonder Oxycodone is referred to
        as hillbilly heroin, prescribed by registered
        drug dealers. The system is not only broken,
        it is corrupted right down to the core.
        The Pharmaceutical Industry was the
        largest financial donor to Gorge W. Bush’s
        election campaigns. And duly, got well
        and truly looked after . . .

        “You got innocent men in jail,
        your insane asylums are filled.
        You got unrighteous doctors
        dealing drugs that’ll never cure your ills.”
        ~ Bob Dylan

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Gosh I know I was just listening about that powder today. Thank God I never used that. I think I’m fortunate that we can pick up the pieces and that my worse fear didn’t happen, but she did cross lines that broke my trust so I think that grieves her soul to the core which as a parent you want them to come to their senses but had her doctors helped her cope with her illness it would have saved so much heartache. 🙏🏼💕 so thankful to be on the other side of this.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. It is a long road to recovery.
        Loving forgiveness is the best antidote
        for working through that ‘survivor’s guilt’.
        The doctors of western medicine often
        fail to realise that, as humans, we are
        not just body & soul, but also spirit . . .
        with a conscience 💛

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you exponentially, Katy 💖
      Just such a pity. Almost 2020, and not
      much has changed in Sin City. Since
      Big Brother holds all his marked cards
      close to his well fed underbelly . . .

      In the year 2525, if man is still alive,
      If woman can survive, they may find

      In the year 3535
      Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth,
      tell no lie
      Everything you think, do and say
      Is in the pill you took today

      In the year 4545
      You ain’t gonna need your teeth,
      won’t need your eyes
      You won’t find a thing to chew
      Nobody’s gonna look at you

      In the year 5555
      Your arms hangin’ limp at your sides
      Your legs got nothin’ to do
      Some machine’s doin’ that for you

      In the year 6565
      You won’t need no husband,
      won’t need no wife
      You’ll pick your son,
      pick your daughter too
      From the bottom of a long glass tube

      In the year 7510
      If God’s a coming,
      He oughta make it by then
      Maybe He’ll look around Himself
      and say
      Guess it’s time for the judgment day

      In the year 8510
      God is gonna shake His mighty head
      He’ll either say I’m pleased
      where man has been
      Or tear it down, and start again

      In the year 9595
      I’m kinda wonderin’
      if man is gonna be alive
      He’s taken everything
      this old earth can give
      And he ain’t put back nothing

      Now it’s been ten thousand years
      Man has cried a billion tears
      For what, he never knew,
      now man’s reign is through
      But through eternal night,
      the twinkling of starlight
      So very far away,
      maybe it’s only yesterday
      ~ Richard Lee Evans

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Heath Ledger, Prince, Michael Jackson
      . . . they’ve all cashed in their scripts.
      But look what happens when you’ve gotta
      fight for your right to do the stupid thing
      . . . and party 🤔🕶️ What is now called
      medicinal, was once known as scorcery.
      Loujen, the situation is certainly a worry.
      The leadership of Nazi Germany were
      all hooked on opiates & amphetamines.
      It only served to make ’em ugly & mean😎

      Like

      Reply

  22. Out here in SF there is no war on drugs….it is to all intents and purposes legal. I used to think it was a good thing – I am a recovered addict. As it stands I’m surrounded by people who cannot handle their shit and act so badly, imposing their violent behavior on those around them. Now I am not so sure. I guess I was a well behaved junkie as far as junkies go.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. After a century of prohibition
      Western culture has been so
      badly bent out of shape that it
      will take a long time to recover.
      As with the US ban on alcohol
      back in the 1920’s, soon as you
      make something illegal it
      becomes cool for the curious,
      the rebellious, to try it.
      Cultures that have developed
      with full access to various herbs
      from nature’s pharmaceutical
      cupboard have managed to keep
      their use in balance.
      Opium only become a major
      problem in China when the
      English started pushing it.
      Opium was a traditional medicine
      for the relief of pain.
      Cocaine, unrefined, was a helpful
      pick me up. Especially for the high
      altitude population up in the Andes
      working with little oxygen. Just
      chew a Coca leaf and you’ll be fine.
      But yes, there will always be a
      portion of the population who will
      require professional help from time
      to time.
      That ain’t the police, nor the prison
      system. With the taxes collected by
      legalising drugs, and the money
      saved from law enforcement, think
      of the first class rehab facilities
      a better society could provide.
      No need to self medicate those
      mental health issues into oblivion.
      It’s the drug barons who’ve had the
      most to gain from refining drugs
      into stronger, and more addictive,
      forms. The more concentrated,
      the easier to smuggle. That black
      market profit is so good they just
      have to push it. I firmly believe that
      crack, ice, ecstasy, etc., are the
      abominable children of Prohibition.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I would have absolutely agreed with you – the British system of prescribing coke and heroin legally to addicts that was in place until America insisted they stop, always seemed like the absolute gold standard of care that didn’t only just save lives, but saved the quality of life for many people who benefitted from it. I used to be behind a Portuguese style decriminalization. Rehab? Since when has there EVER been a decent and compassionate rehab facility? Society will never stop punishing the junkie for existing. The carnage I am seeing on the streets of SF is beneficial to no one. People are left to do what they are gonna do, Violent crimes, drug related shootings, people absolutely suffering and causing suffering to others in return. This is not compassion, but simply allowing people to kill themselves as gruesomely as possible, and fuck the citizens who are trying to walk the streets without being harrassed. I am sick to death of the local crackheads in the ‘loin making my walk home an absolute danger. There needs to be some kind of sanction that says it is not ok to let the streets descend into a shit scattered hell hole of violence and danger. People don’t want rehab. We are not talking about yer middle class junkie or acid head here, but roving gangs of people intent on hurting others. …I hate myself for saying this, but I am just about out of compassion. I didn’t behave that way, neither did anyone I hung with. I fear that civilized society that does not criminalize drugs, but helps those that want it, whilst leaving people alone to do what they need to do, does not exist, because human nature says it can’t, and that breaks my heart. …In fact…ignore me…I had a difficult day being threatened by people who can’t handle their substances, people I do not know, and didnt interfere with, when all I wanted to do was walk home with my kid. To be frank, for the first time in my life I wish a cop had shown up and dragged their nasty asses to jail.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I hear you . . . I was nearly stabbed
        for my television set.
        There will always be the drug
        addicted, the lawless, and the
        criminally insane, but since
        prohibition they are often one
        and the same.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Stabbed for yer tv does not sound like fun. I would just like to walk down the damn road. There should be licenses given out to anyone who uses crack – the first time you behave like an asshole, no more crack for you.

        Liked by 2 people

  23. Hooray! a new post, David; don’t know why I never got this in my feed; a terrific eloquent rant, rancorous and revelatory though, as you say, it needs be said again that the ‘war on ….’never accomplishes anything positive; I remember Escobar and the reign of terror he wrought upon Medellin and that the army waged on its citizens: I’m sure many innocents were ‘caught up’ ; amazing photographs, David —

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you most commodiously,
      and lucidiously, John 🙏 😎
      I’ve travelled to places where the
      prohibition experiment has been
      abandoned and the air seems
      to be fresher there! I put it down
      to a reduction in corruption. The
      crime rate is also considerably
      lower?

      Like

      Reply

  26. So many lines to savor like random ware and Snow White despair. The mansions buoy on the graves of the mentally ill another powerful one to visualize. War on terror comes to mind as another twisting of the concept of war.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

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