Dear friends,
When most people think about the "War on Drugs," they point to Nixon's 1971 declaration. Some might reach back to Harry Anslinger in the 1930s. But what if I told you the real war on drugs began over a century earlier—and that understanding this history reveals why prohibition has never worked anywhere, at any time?
My recent conversation with Cambridge University historian Pierre Caquet shattered several assumptions I held about drug policy. As the author of "Opium's Orphans" and "The Bell of Treason," Caquet brings a historian's perspective to two of today's most pressing issues: drug prohibition and the crisis in Ukraine.
The first serious drug prohibition didn't happen in America—it began in China in 1813, when the Qing Emperor moved to ban opium. The results were predictable and devastating: a massive black market emerged, corruption spread through the administration, and profits became so enormous that they attracted increasingly dangerous criminal enterprises.
As Caquet explains:
"When you ban something and you do not have the means to police the black market properly, that creates very strong incentives for people to deal in it, to push it, to encourage people to use the drug, and it can be counterproductive."
From alcohol prohibition in America to the modern fentanyl crisis, the pattern repeats endlessly. We ban substances, create enormous profit incentives for criminals, then act surprised when the problem gets worse instead of better.
But here's what struck me most: despite decades of research, we still don't understand why people take drugs in the first place. Since the late 1990s, American opioid use has increased by a factor of 10-20. In Europe, over the same period, there's been virtually no change. We're dealing with the same substances, similar societies, but radically different outcomes.
Caquet's other book, "The Bell of Treason," reveals equally disturbing patterns. His detailed account of the 1938 Munich Agreement—when Britain and France handed Czechoslovakia to Hitler—reads like a blueprint for today's debates over Ukraine. Hitler claimed German-speaking Czechs needed "protection," Western leaders believed appeasing aggression would bring peace, and the territory surrendered contained massive military assets that strengthened Germany.
Replace "German-speaking Czechs" with "Russian-speaking Ukrainians" and "Hitler" with "Putin," and you have today's crisis. One-third of the German tanks that conquered France in 1940 came from Czechoslovakia. Today, Ukraine possesses significant military capabilities that would dramatically shift the balance of power if captured.
Both issues force us to confront an uncomfortable reality: sometimes the "reasonable" position—compromise, gradual approaches, splitting the difference—is actually the most dangerous path forward. Whether we're talking about prohibition creating criminal empires or appeasement emboldening dictators, the historical record is clear.
Half-measures and wishful thinking don't solve fundamental problems—they make them worse.
Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller
Links & Resources:
Pierre Caquet's website: www.pecaquet.com
Full episode and 20 years of archived conversations: mindbodyhealthpolitics.org
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