This War Is Worth Fighting

The Washington Post ^ | June 16, 2005 | George F. Will

[neverdem]

Exasperated by pessimism about the "war on drugs," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says: Washington is awash with lobbyists hired by businesses worried that government may, intentionally or inadvertently, make them unprofitable. So why assume that trade in illicit drugs is the one business that government, try as it might, cannot seriously injure?

Here is why: When Pat Moynihan was an adviser to President Richard Nixon, he persuaded the French government to break the "French connection" by which heroin came to America. Moynihan explained his achievement to Labor Secretary George Shultz, who said laconically: "Good."

Moynihan: "No, really, this is a big event."

Shultz, unfazed: "Good."

Moynihan: "I suppose that you think that so long as there is a demand for drugs, there will continue to be a supply."

Shultz: "You know, there's hope for you yet."

Walters understands that when there is a $65 billion annual American demand for an easily smuggled commodity produced in poor countries, and when the price of cocaine and heroin on U.S. streets is 100 times the production costs, much will evade even sophisticated interdiction methods. And, Walters says, huge quantities of marijuana are grown domestically, for example, in California, Kentucky and West Virginia -- often on public lands because the government can seize private land used for marijuana cultivation. And particularly potent strains of the drug are grown indoors. Marijuana possession, not trafficking, accounts for most of the surge in drug arrests since 1990. Critics suggest an armistice on this front in the $35 billion-a-year drug war.

Marijuana's price has fallen and its potency has doubled in the past eight years. So say David Boyum and Peter Reuter in their new book, "An Analytic Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy," from the American Enterprise Institute.

[aynrandfreak]

I'll take Milton Friedman or William Buckley's view on the War on Drugs before this Disney 'Conservative'.

[Phocion]

Of the 19 million users, 7 million are drug-dependent.

So 63% of drug users don't get addicted? Gee, users are always addicts in the commercials.

[freedom44]

War on drugs is an inefficent, ineffective war similar to prohibition.

Legalize it - tax it, regulate it, teach kids it's wrong, etc.

[SittinYonder]

And he thinks indifference to drug abuse, which debilitates the individual's capacity to flourish in freedom, mocks the nation's premises.

A couple of contradictions here.

First, the War on Drugs also, for 450,000 people on any given day in 2003, also debilitates an individual's capacity to flourish in freedom.

Second, a war not on drugs but the citizens of the nation who use them also mocks the nation's premises.

Eventually, this is going to have to stop. Clarence Thomas made the point that the WOD has already given the federal government the authority to regulate all things. The feds have seized too, too, too much power and authority in the name of the WOD.

[NO_2_CORZINE]

Agreed. So many teens do it do go against the establishment...to break the law...makes them feel like "rebels" Legalize it and teens will drastically decline in use.

[John Locke]

Me too. For that matter, exactly where in the Enumerated Powers granted to Congress by the Constitution is the power to dictate what I shall or shall not ingest into my own body?

BTW, I take no drug stronger than aspirin, but I'm fighting mad over a system that puts pot growers in jail while muggers and gangbangers can walk the streets as and when they please.

[joesnuffy]

Must be working they got Mena moved south of the US border

[aynrandfreak]

Yeah, I just saw you're in Singapore, with drug laws that make us look like Amsterdam, but at least they have a lot more economic freedom.

[SittinYonder]

Legalize it and teens will drastically decline in use.

In addition to that, there can be honest dialogue about the potential harmful effects of drugs. As it stands, the government's warnings about addiction and other harmful effects amount to propaganda that can't be trusted.

[neverdem]

Border Police Chief Only Latest Casualty In Mexico Drug War

[GLDNGUN]

So many teens do it do go against the establishment...to break the law...makes them feel like "rebels" Legalize it and teens will drastically decline in use.

So, not only do you want drugs legal, you want them legal for kids? Brilliant.

[WOSG]

"Legalize it and teens will drastically decline in use."

ROFL - that's a good one.

I'll put you down under "just got off of turnip truck".

[John Locke]

Yep, the drug laws here are pretty strict. If you take the stuff, stay home.

But - as you've guessed - I value economic and personal freedom a lot higher. Highest tax rate is 20% and I can walk the streets at 3 AM in perfect safety. Though, we did have one protest against the police at a public housing project a few years back. They were protesting the proposed closure of the local police station.

[freepatriot32]

ping

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[doberville]

Nope. That's not what he said. And it certainly isn't what he meant. (But me thinks you already know that.)

So, you think teens aren't already using pot right now? Really? Riiiiiiiiiiight.

[Larry Lucido]

After 18 years as a cop, the only effects I can see from the war on (some) drugs are:

Bloodier turf wars between dealers

Militarization of our police departments, with more commando-wannabes joining the forces.

More and more "dynamic entries" of residences, often at the wrong addresses, where any rational armed law-abiding person would be (or should be) taking up a defensive posture and shooting back and the (unknown and unidentified) intruders.

I just don't see it as a plus for society.

[Larry Lucido]

shooting back and the = shooting back AT the