70+ years of "drug war". Trillions spent. Countless innocent, as well as guilty, lives lost.
And yet... We still have, as a percentage, about the same number of people taking a self destructive path. We can't even keep drugs out of our prisons.
And yet, any talk of finding an alternative, decriminalizing softer drugs, revamping the criminal code to punish actual harm done, etc... all end up in the same idiotic strawman mouthbreathing platitudes by those convinced that if we dared loosen the laws it'd be Armageddon in the playgrounds from Coast to Coast.
Give it a rest. That line of reasoning didn't even ring true in 1933.
I am open to changing strategies in dealing with drugs. If it could be proved that legalization would be better for society, it should be done.
My main gripe with a lot of the Libertarian arguments on the issue is that they are not based upon practical considerations, but on a phony, sanctimonious cry for “freedom from government oppression” that interferes with their “inallienable right” to snort, inject, smoke or otherwise consume whatever they want, no matter how great and how likely the harm to other people is.
Drug use is not a constitutional right and drug policy is not an issue of civil rights or freedom, but one of public policy.