End the War on Drugs Now

American Thinker ^ | March 26, 2011 | Zbigniew Mazurak

[neverdem]

Despite federal and state expenditures of billions of dollars per year, severe punishments, and frequent unconstitutional raids on private homes, the War On Drugs is a failure.  Since this futile war began, the number of drug users in the US has grown rather than shrink, and the rate of drug usage has grown along with the profits of drug cartels.  America's Southern border has become very dangerous as a result of the War, and Mexico is a failing state because wealthy, well-armed drug cartels can afford to fight a regular war in that country and bribe (or assassinate) its officials.

By any objective measure, the War On Drugs is a disastrous failure. It's time to end this madness now.

The War began in 1970, when President Nixon declared it and the Congress passed various legislation outlawing drugs (even relatively harmless ones such as marijuana).  The Congress didn't even bother to change the Constitution (as it did when it banned alcohol beverages), and simply ignored the strict limits the Constitution imposed on it.

Since then, federal and state authorities have been arresting and prosecuting just about anyone they caught possessing, growing, using, or selling drugs.  It doesn't matter to them that to date, no one has died because of ingesting marijuana, while thousands of people die every die around the world as a result of overuse of alcohol and smoking tobacco.  Moreover, alcoholics and tobacco smokers harm not only themselves, but also everyone else in their orbit.

Even by the 1980s, there were signs that the punitive policies were failing. Nonetheless, Washington politicians didn't end the War - they doubled on it.

They ignored the lessons of the Prohibition Era, when alcohol prohibition drove distillers underground, but did not eliminate alcohol from the private market.  Even worse, the alcohol market was monopolized by gangs, including the Mafia, making Al Capone a very wealthy man.  These gangs were terrorizing adults on streets everyday, and drive-by shootings were common. The same dismal results occurred everywhere where prohibition of alcohol (or drugs) has been tried, including Russia under Gorbachyov.  Al Capone opposed the 21^st Amendment (which ended the Prohibition), because it opened the door to the legalization of alcohol, thus creating numerous legal, law-abiding competitors for him.  Capone went to jail in 1932, before Prohibition ended, but its end radically decreased his Mafia's annual income.

What are the results of the War on Drugs?

A million innocent Americans are sitting in  prisons right now solely because they've been caught storing, buying or using drugs.  A million people who haven't harmed anyone else. Americans prisons are overcrowded as a result.

Taxpayers dollars and limited police resources are being squandered on arresting people who may have harmed themselves but haven't harmed anyone else, rather than be used chasing truly dangerous criminals.

America's Southern border is dangerous and de facto governed by drug cartels, which are also present in hundreds of American cities, even NYC, Chicago, Tacoma, and Anchorage.

Drug gangs have high annual incomes, and therefore can afford to buy lethal weapons, bribe officials, and build villas for their leaders.  This income is not taxed.

Meanwhile, Americans who want to buy drugs for recreational (or even medical) purposes are forced to buy them from these gangs rather than pharmacies.  These drug cartels also supply weapons to other criminal organizations, and could sell them to terrorists.

During the last two decades, a few states, such as California, have legalized medical marijuana and proposed to legalize recreational weed.  Government officials and cops, eager to protect their bloated bureaucracies and budgets as well as their police prerogatives, opposed these initiatives.  Sometimes these policies were approved by voters, sometimes not. But whenever they came up for a vote, government officials said they would disregard the result (i.e. the people's verdict) and enforce federal drug laws anyway.

Such was the case with the 2010 Proposition #19 in California.  Its citizens submitted a proposal to legalize marijuana (at least for medicinal purposes) in a referendum, Washington politicians arrogantly promised to disregard the results before such referendums occurred, and discredited establishment politicians, led by George Shultz (a man who shouldn't even dare to speak publicly) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, spoke out against such proposals.  They, like all other liberals, believe that the government should decide for private citizens what's best for them, like a nanny state; that adults are too stupid to decide for them. Proposition #19 failed.  Luckily, Arizona voters passed a similar measure, Proposition #203.

What if the War on Drugs is ended and drugs are legalized?

The US prison population would immediately shrink by a million people, thus stripping dictators around the world of the argument that the US incarceration rate is.  Prison expenditures would decrease significantly.  There would now be enough cells to lock up all truly dangerous criminals, rather than people who may be harming themselves but aren't doing harm to anyone else.

Annual federal expenditures would shrink by at least $44 billion and, if drugs are taxed, annual federal revenue would grow by $33 billion.  States' coffers could be similarly filled with revenue and state expenses would shrink.

Drug gangs would lose their source of income and would cease being able to buy weapons, bribe officials with big money, and assassinate people.  They would stop being able to terrorize people on the streets, travelers on America's borders, or the country of Mexico.

Police resources would be allocated to real priorities (i.e. fighting dangerous criminals), and courts' dockets would be significantly reduced.

Truly ill people who need medical marijuana (which can be medically beneficial) would be able to buy (or grow) it legally, with doctors' prescriptions, and youngsters who want to use it for recreational purposes could do so too; they wouldn't need to fear overzealous cops and punishment that would make these decent people into criminals.

Finally, the size, scope, budget and prerogatives of the federal government would be significantly decreased.  That is also the real reason why politicians and bureaucrats oppose drug legalization.  They don't want to see the federal government and its prerogatives reduced.  They are addicted to it, and addiction to governing is more dangerous than addiction to drugs.  They couldn't care less whether the American people live healthy lifestyles or not (and to be honest, it's none of their business).  They just want to micromanage Americans and their lifestyles.

It's time to end the War on Drugs.  It's not a conservative policy, its results are dismal, its costly, and it has made America's drug problem worse, not better.

[jmacusa]

Not everyone who drinks and does drugs becomes addicted.

[Boogieman]

“A line has been drawn. Why can’t alcohol be enough?”

People will be people, I guess.

“This is about what kind of society you want your children to grow up in.”

I think you’re kidding yourself here. They’re going to grow up with this stuff in the world one way or the other. The debate is whether we want to keep pretending that prohibition works, instead of making the problem worse.

[Boogieman]

“I believe those who do drugs will do them regardless, and some are even attracted to the forbidden.”

Great point. One of the reasons teenagers are so vulnerable to drugs is because of their rebellious tendencies, which are perfectly natural. By making drugs tabboo, we’ve created a drug counterculture which appeals to those rebellious instincts. Aren’t we kind of laying a snare that way?

[Boogieman]

“Now, can anyone think of a more recent example of a country where society is trending downwards while laws and regulations are proliferating to ridiculous nannystate levels?”

Why, merry ole England, of course!

[Texas Eagle]

America's Southern border has become very dangerous as a result of the War, and Mexico is a failing state because wealthy, well-armed drug cartels can afford to fight a regular war in that country and bribe (or assassinate) its officials.

Interestingly enough, the author fails to mention that drug posession is legal in Mehico.

Ahem.

[Boogieman]

“I don’t think that that can be equated with “advancing the drug culture,” if that’s what you’re implying.”

Of course it can’t. Drug cultures usually exist at the fringes of society, but what popularizes them is the prohibition of drugs. Can you think of one example where outlawing a drug actually reduced its usage in the long-run?

[metesky]

All this freedom talk scares the hell out of squishy so-called conservatives.

Strangely a similar thread caused me to sign on to FR back in '98.

[Boogieman]

You’ve probably got a point about the political aspects, especially nationally. State by state is a bit different, since there are many states where a significant majority come down in favor or reforming the laws. Also, as the younger generations replace the older in the electorate, the numbers keep growing. We might want to get ahead of the curve.

[Boogieman]

“if the WOD was truly a war, then it’s been one spectacular failure, because drugs are still just easy to get.”

Yup, I could make a phone call and have most any quantity of pot delivered to my door within an hour. I can’t get prescription drugs that easily!

[Boogieman]

“It is quite easy to win the war if it was fought correctly.”

Maybe you could enlighten the rest of us as to how the war could be easily one?

[Boogieman]

“Would like to know just one thing: why is marijuana smoke less harmful to the lungs than tobacco smoke?”

It’s not. Especially since people smoke it unfiltered and take deeper drags and hold it longer, it can actually be more harmful. However, most marijuana users don’t smoke 10-40 joints a day, unlike tobacco addicts.

[Boogieman]

“I would ask what drugs would become legal under the No More War on Drugs Regime? and how?”

Well, I’d say marijuana is a no-brainer, it should be at least as legal as alcohol. As for the rest, well, we allow nearly identical drugs to most of the others, with a prescription, right now. For example, oxycontin is one of the most powerful opiates invented, it’s worse than heroin or morphine in pretty much every way, but it’s easy enough to find a doctor to give you some of that.

I don’t have all the answers to what the best policy would be, but I do know that the current policy is an abject failure, so it can’t hurt to consider reforming it. Until we start considering honestly the other options, we’re stuck with total prohibition “because the Feds says so”.

“Would imports be allowed?”

That’s an interesting question. Probably not, since there are very thorny treaty issues, thanks mostly to the lobbying of the anti-drug warriors in the US. Since we brought about those treaties, they won’t be changed or jettisoned until we change our stance. We’ve already got a thriving drug manufacturing industry here at home though, and if it were legalized, it would surely expand to fill a lot of our demand.

[The_Reader_David]

I’ve observed it before, and I’ll probably point it out again: the only bright line I can find between psychoactive substances which are legal and those which are illegal (flat out, or without a prescription) is that those which are legal — caffeine, alcohol and nicotine — were popular and generally accepted in Europe at the time of the American Founding, while those which are illegal — marijuana, cocaine, opiates, ibogaine, psilocybin, . . . — weren’t.

Rational policy would look at the harms likely to be caused by increased use and weight them against the harms caused by the prohibition policy, on a case-by-case basis. I suspect a few drugs (methamphetamine, possibly cocaine, maybe LSD) would stay illegal by that standard, while the rest would be better treated the way we treat alcohol and tobacco: regulated, taxed, and their excessive use treated as a health issue, rather than a criminal matter.

[The_Reader_David]

Would like to know just one thing: why is marijuana smoke less harmful to the lungs than tobacco smoke?

Gram-for-gram, marijuana smoke is probably as bad for the lungs as tobacco smoke, maybe more so. The problem is, that's not a fair basis for comparison: the reasonable basis is exposure of a typical user (one might even also consider a heavy user and a casual use -- the last in the case of tobacco being those who have a cigar after dinner on special occasions, or marijuana the user who has the odd joint at a party, but doesn't typically buy the stuff). The typical tobacco user smokes one or more cigarettes per day, while the typical marijuana user will smoke a two or three joints a week. A heavy user of tobacco might go through ten to 20 cigarettes in a day, while a heavy marijuana user might smoke one, two, maybe three joints a day.

Even conceding for argument sake that marijuana smoke is twice as bad for the lungs on an per-gram basis as tobacco smoke, comparing the exposure a typical habit creates leaves tobacco smokers more at risk of adverse health consequences.

Also, while pot-heads might not want to quit, they don't get withdrawal symptoms when they do, so smoking cessation is much easier for them than for tobacco users.

[TigersEye]

Drugs weren’t much of a problem until the government began its crusade against them. When you use the word ‘simplistic’ you need to stand in front of a mirror.

[TigersEye]

So, the WosDs is like communism? It hasn’t worked because the right people haven’t been in charge of it yet? LOL

[TigersEye]

Ad hominem is always a loser and never an argument.

[TigersEye]

Why, merry ole England, of course!

Yeah, that one too! LOL

[TigersEye]

Strangely a similar thread caused me to sign on to FR back in '98.

Say, old timer, those were some wild west days weren't they? ;^)

There were some pretty serious and drawn out debates too.

[Impy]

One thing is for sure. It’s an unmitigated failure on the level of Vietnam. Lots of $$$ down the tube. And lots of murders of dogs by overzealous agents breaking down doors to look for marijuana.