Rethinking The Drug War (John Stossel Hits Home Run In Argument Against Futile WOD Alert)

Townhall.com ^ | 03/29/06 | John Stossel

[goldstategop]

The WOD can't be won. Even if you make drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them; it just makes things worse. As John Stossel notes, even if you think drug addiction is bad, the cure has has resulted in more crime, more terrorism and the existence of powerful criminal cartels that can do all kinds of things we don't want with illicit money. And our resources could better be spent on prevention and treatment programs than to lock people up for pursuing recreational fantasies with a couple of pills. Its called common sense.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[liberty2004]

The WOD can't be won.

Correct. Milton Friedman had a brilliant writing illustrating the futility of the War on Drugs. I believed he penned it shortly after Nixon stated the idiotic War on Drugs. All the bad consequences he wrote about have come true. Stossel hits another one out the park.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I am well over three score in age, my entire adult life the big lie of; "we are winning" has been preached by the government." All I see is more & more crime and wasted lives from the drug war.

Same with the war on poverty, nine trillion dollars down the drain, and not a damned thing to show for but the same poverty and misery from the pitiful denizens down on the welfare plantations. But, we do have tens of millions of illegals doing the work Americans are paid not to do. S/

[Carry_Okie]

When this country enforced draconian drug laws ON USERS there wasn't a problem.

When middle class parents wailed about junior's 20 year sentence for a joint, those laws changed.

They don't have a problem in Singapore. Guess why?

[Global2010]

I enjoy John Stossels' comentaries.

He has a way of looking at both sides of the coin on many social issues.

[DB]

I've been saying this for some time. Virtually every time I say it here I get flamed...

I think the WOD was Reagan's biggest mistake.

The price has been high in both blood and treasure with little if anything to show for it. One only has to look back at a little history to know what the result would be. Oh well...

[cryptical]

They don't have a problem in Singapore. Guess why?

They don't have a constitution that protects individual liberty?

[decal]

"They don't have a problem in Singapore. Guess why?"

Because it's a police state?

[ran15]

Milton Friedman and others who think like him, called exactly how the drug war would turn out. More crime, more prisons, bigger government, less rights for individuals, and drugs as available as ever.

The drug warriors remind of communists. They both imagine a utopian world, if just the state can intervene, with the ends justifying the means.. and oh yes they won't screw up like the last communists did.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Nixon was more successful than any president after him in battling illegal narcotics. In Turkey he created a model program to persuade poppy farmers to grow alternative crops. He developed a massive anti-drug education program aimed at elementary school age children. He founded the DEA. He funded drug and alcohol treatment facilities. The difference between the Nixon era drug war and today's drug war is that the Nixon Administration spent 25 cents of each WOD dollar on enforcement/interdiction and 75 cents on education and treatment. Today 75 cents goes to enforcement/interdiction and 25 cents goes to treatment/education.

[liberty2004]

They don't have a problem in Singapore. Guess why?

none that we are aware of. Besides, our society is so much different; having once been dominated by strong respect for individual rights and the "live free or die motto." You would have to lock up 1/4 the country to make any difference. If the drug war ended tomorrow, I doubt seriously the drug problem would be much worse. I have never done any drugs and if the all drugs were legalized, I would have zero interest in any of it. The plain reality is those who want to do drugs, will find them; those who don't, will not. I have a strong faith in most people to do the right thing. To think they drug use would skyrocket because they are legal is false. Please go back and read some of Friedman's and other great thinkers. Some day the War on Drugs will be ended and years after, people will wonder why we wasted our time.

[SunnyD1182]

Here's what I don't get: everyone I know- liberal or conservative- thinks the War on Drugs is a disaster, a waste of time, and a horrible idea that must be put to an end. It's probably the one issue everyone agrees on. My question is this: who are the people that are actually supporting this nonsense? There has to be a pretty sizable group out there somewhere, or else this money wouldn't be wasted every year. From what I can see, most people want this fake war ended.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

I think the WOD was Reagan's biggest mistake.

The blame for that belongs to Nixon.

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "The WOD can't be won."

Yes, it can, but evidently not dramatically enough or quickly enough for the notorious short-commitment span of the American people. For example, drug courts established in my home state and elsewhere are achieving remarkable results in terms of both recovery and in the reduction of criminal recidivism.

But legalistic and economic reasons aside, one of the reasons I was drawn to conservatism as a political philosophy is because of its clarity of moral purpose. Legalizing drugs is another step on the road to cultural acceptance and affirmation. Look at gambling: the same murderous rats who ran the casinos in Vegas are running the casinos now, only nationwide. Gambling is accepted, even celebrated, with its grubby, loathsome philosophy permeating everything from the Internet to the local 7-11, teaching children that the one thing infinitely better than hard work and study is the luck of the draw. After drugs, I suppose prostitution is next. After all, we're talking 'victimless' crimes, right? And prostitutes aren't really prostitutes: they're 'sex workers', and their johns are 'participants in the sex industry', consumers. That is the logic, correct?

I say we draw the line here, now. Better to fight the good fight and lose than to passively acquiesce. That would be such a European thing to do.

[tonycavanagh]

re :If we did not have this drug war going on, we could spend more time going after robbers and rapists and burglars and murderers.

This has always been my take.

In London we had a operation called Operation Bumble Bee targeting career burglars withing a few months we had cut break ins by 10% and the figure was going down.

Then a newspaper the Evening Standard ran a series of stories about dealers in Soho.

The offshoot was that resources were diverted from BumbleBee and put to use tackling the dealers.

After a man hour intensive five month operation they busted a gang of dealers many were arrested an jailed, withing a week new dealers had taken over.

As a buy product housebreak ins rose again.

[liberty2004]

Today 75 cents goes to enforcement/interdiction and 25 cents goes to treatment/education

thanks for pointing that out. I did not recall the %. If true, then it shows Nixon was wiser on this matter than leaders that followed. The shame is that most people who have drug problems have serious emotional problems that need compassion, not incarceration, to help solve. The Drug Warriors like to imply the drugs cause the problem these people have, when it is their sad state that causes them to fall into the drug dependency. We would have a much more civil society if we treated them with compassion instead of police state actions.

[liberty2004]

The drug warriors remind of communists. They both imagine a utopian world, if just the state can intervene, with the ends justifying the means.. and oh yes they won't screw up like the last communists did.

good analogy, spot on. Deserves repeating.

[Irish Rose]

Most "drug crime" happens because the product is illegal. Since drug sellers can't rely on the police to protect their property, they form gangs and arm themselves. Drug buyers steal to pay the high black market prices.

And all those drug buyers and sellers would be model citizens if only the evil government wouldn't ruin their fun by banning drugs. Anybody who would steal to get mind- and body-destroying drugs, and anybody who would buy a gun and form a gang to sell them, is either evil or stupid. Chances are they'd end up criminals anyway.

The government says alcohol is as addictive as heroin, but no one is knocking over 7-Elevens to get Budweiser.

If the government truly says this, then the government is definitely wrong. If alcohol were as addictive as heroin, everybody who drank would be alcoholics. Are there actually people who shoot up heroin and do not end up addicted?

[tonycavanagh]

re :I was drawn to conservatism as a political philosophy is because of its clarity of moral purpose.

I know many socialists who say the same thing.

Taking drugs, gambling going to prostitutes, you could say that that indicates a weak willed nature, a lack of moral backbone.

We could even go further and mention smokers, drinkers and those with very unhealthy diets.

After all if we are going to look after in fact assume responsibility for others because they are too weak to assume responsibility for there own actions, or hand that responsibility over to the government why stop at just prostitution, gambling and drugs.

There is so much else we can do to regulate people and make a perfect society.

[liberty2004]

From what I can see, most people want this fake war ended.

I think most people are still brainwashed by the government on this matter. Second, there are hundreds of thousands of government workers whose career depends on the War on Drugs. Notwithstanding the utter moral imperative to end the war, the government is "addicted" to the War to keep their parasite class employed. Remember, it came out after 911 that many FBI staffs around the country were mostly dedicated to the WOD, not terrorism. It would take a strong visionary leader to end this insane drug war.