This is a traditional travel advice book but is also a strong statement of Rick Steves’ opinions.  He starts with a premise that he made in the first edition.  The value of traveling is to make the traveler see his world in a different way.  And, hopefully, that new vision will cause the traveler to change in a positive way.  It’s also a fascinating look at places that most of us will never get to.

Rick Steves travels to Iran.  His first impression is a heavy, oppressive culture.  He’s not scared, but feels the weight of the theocracy dictating almost everything in the country.  Then, Rick Steves begins to talk with the people.  He finds them warm, funny, and anxious to talk with him.  Many of them say, “We like Americans.”  He concludes that our two nations misunderstand each other in many ways.  And since Americans don’t know much about Iranians, there is the risk of a violent clash because of our ignorance.  Traveling, Rick Steves maintains, reduces that risk because we get to know other people and how they live.  Which, it turns out, is much like us in many ways.

He also investigates the drug policies of some of the European countries.  Many of them are quite different from us.  For instance, Denmark has chosen to treat the drug problem as a public health issue.  The U.S. chose to criminalize it.  The percentage of drug us and related crime in Europe is no worse than here.  And that’s in spite of the fact marijuana is sold legally in special shops.  But Denmark spends a fraction of what we spend on the same problem.  Instead, they spend it on repairing roads, and building hospitals and schools.

Rick Steves launches into the main issue he wants us to understand.  By traveling, we learn what other people around the world are doing to solve the same problems we have here.  Maybe we could consider those solutions  to improve our situation.

Readers may think he is simply a left-wing advocate.  Not true.  He emphasizes that he loves America and runs a business here.  He is a capitalist who believes that many answers can be learned by traveling and experiencing other people.

Finally, he challenges all of us to do something.  Rick Steves suggests we pick something that interests us: poverty, hunger, housing, drug policies, or the effect of U.S. trade policy around the world.  Travelers who see, up close and personal, these issues around the world, have a great opportunity to act.

Get the book and read it.

The post Why You Should Read Rick Steves’ New Book appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

In my last post, I recommended travel book writer Rick Steves’ new book called, Travel as a Political Act.  Among other great insights that he’s learned from his travels throughout Europe, he has a chapter on a common problem for both the U.S. and Europe: drugs.  http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=163&id=385

He separates the problem into “soft” drugs (alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco) and “hard” drugs (heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine).  Last post, I wrote about the soft drugs; this time, I’ll look at hard drugs.

One of the biggest differences Rick Steves  found between the U.S. and Europe is their government’s approach to the problem.  The U.S. has criminalized all possession/sale of drugs while some of the European countries have decriminalized possession and treat it as a public health problem that needs to be minimized and an effort made to reduce the harm both to the user and the community.

He writes about the Swiss who have installed blue lights in all public bathrooms–it makes it difficult to find your veins if you’re trying to shoot-up in a public bathroom!  They also offer low cost clean syringes for sale all over the country.  They realize that dirty needles, not heroin, cause the spread of disease.  In addition, addicts can access the services of nurses and counselors in an effort to go straight and get back to jobs.

In contrast, in the U.S. we have criminalized the possession of all hard drugs and treat it with criminal sanctions–prison.  Certainly chemical dependency programs are offered but often they are in connection with the criminal justice system or prison.  Both of which are extremely expensive ways for us to pay for this problem when you add in the costs of law enforcement, the court system, probation, and prisons.

The state courts in Minnesota have taken a different approach that’s created a hybrid between the EU’s policy and strict criminal enforcement.  It’s called “Drug Court.”  While the state legislature continues to criminalize possession of hard drugs, when offenders are arrested and charged, if they are first time offenders, instead of the usual trial and prison if convicted, the courts offer them an alternative.

Probation officers and social workers become involved and offer treatment programs to the offenders.  If they successfully complete treatment and can demonstrate sobriety over a period of time, their criminal cases are dismissed.  The effect is to “decriminalize” the offenses–sort of.

The effort is not focused on punishment but rather, on reducing a public health problem.  Overall, the U.S. loses about 18,000 people to hard drug overdoses while Europe (with a much larger population) loses about 8,000.

Maybe we could learn something from them?

The post War on Drugs–Busted, Part II appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.