Many people say Prohibition did not work, but what is there definition of “did not work”? How many millions of people (children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandkids, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles) have been killed, maimed, or hurt by alcohol and drunk drivers since Prohibition ended?
Living in USSRW (Washington State), the brain-dead liberals (who control elections due to their overwhelming majority) decided to make use or recreational drugs legal. One recent report said that usage at a local high school has doubled. Is this a good thing?
Why will drug use increase among all ages groups - including kids - when legalized? Easy: it is cheaper and more available.
They think when stoned or need their next toke/hit that is why it makes sense.
How many “millions” have had their lives harmed in some way by alcohol since Prohibition ended? A bunch. How many would have been prevented had Prohibition continued? I would argue your net gain would be “none.” In fact, you would have more murders and gang related deaths over alcohol during that time.
Why is that? The answer is obvious; because people want to drink alcohol. So long as people want to drink alcohol, they will find a way to do it. It’s the same with drugs. It doesn’t matter what laws you pass. It doesn’t matter how invasive you make the government. It doesn’t matter how many people you lock in the local and state dungeons.
Last I checked, Heroin is illegal. And its abuse is destroying the lives of suburban white kids when it used to just be a “black” thing. Opiates, without prescription, are illegal. That doesn’t keep wealthy NFL team owners from popping them like Sweet Tarts. Meth is illegal. And it’s leaving a bigger swath of destruction through our rural areas than the worst tornado outbreak ever did.
You cannot use the iron hammer of government to solve what are social issues. In fact, it makes people naturally rebel against it. If you want to end alcohol abuse, or drug abuse, or pornography, or child abuse, you have to convince people that they don’t want to drink, use drugs, watch porn or bugger kids. Until you do that, people will do these things no matter how much you empower a totalitarian police state.
Unless, of course, you just start executing people over a joint of marijuana. That might work. Do you think we should try that? I can guarantee you’d have a very low recidivist rate.
I’ve been in the practice of criminal law since 1984. I was a prosecutor until 2002. Now I am in defense. And I can tell you that the only thing the WOD is doing is filling prisons and creating a totalitarian police state.
Threatening somebody with prison merely for possessing the wrong liquid, plant, medicine, etc. is simply Unamerican, and exhibits a profoundly shallow understanding of the nature of Freedom itself. "Protecting the public" is the mantra of many Tyrants, and even if they're not particularly authoritarian, leaders who espouse such nonsense invariably perpetuate Tyranny, even if it's unintended.
Contraband law invites and creates massive abuses of privacy rights and the Fourth Amendment, just to name a couple.
So, whether Prohibition works or not, it is Tyrannical and should be rejected on that basis.
In America, we're not supposed to adopt authoritarian solutions just because they may "work". And, by the way, history has made its judgement on Prohibition. The verdict: it didn't work.
This Prohibitionist's feeble understanding of Freedom is a hallmark of the collectivist authoritarian mindset, and it should not afflict Constitutional conservatives who claim to have any interest in minimal government, because it takes BIG, nanny state government, with breathtakingly expansive police power, to enforce such widely targeted (and broadly disregarded) laws.
How about we concentrate on prosecuting and imprisoning people who actually violate the rights of others? Thieves, fraudsters, and anybody who commits an actual crime, whether it be in furtherance of a drug habit, or to pay for grandma's operation.
The War on Drugs is both tyrannical and absurd.
I'm not going to waste my breath further trying to convince anyone. The facts, and what the current situation is, are as plain as day.