Losing the War on Drugs

Rolling Stone has an article on “How America Lost the War on Drugs”. While I generally find Rolling Stone articles to be biased politically, this article is pretty dead on target.

We’ve been fighting the war on drugs for over 30 years and drugs remain cheap and plentiful. Drug gangs have only grown in strength. There are more now gangs than ever before.

We’ve spent billions, if not trillions of dollars on the drug war and the problem hasn’t abated much. It’s more socially unacceptable to be a drug user than it was in the 70s, but it’s also socially unacceptable to be an alcoholic or a smoker and that hasn’t stopped them either.

The only way to win the war on drugs is to completely change tactics and make it legal. That would eliminate the business for drug lords and gangs. It would cut off a major source of revenue for terrorists. Because if we grew our drugs and managed it ourselves, that would destroy the business of the drug trade. And by taxing drugs, the government would have insane amounts of capital to pay for things it needs to fix, like Medicare and Social Security.

Instead of sending people to prison for using drugs, addicts should be sentenced to rehab and education, which could be funded by drug taxes.

But that would make too much sense. This is why governments and bureaucracy can never solve problems. They get stuck on a failed ideas and keep it going almost indefinitely. The welfare state ran for 30 years and caused immense harm to families in America, especially in minority communities. The drug war has sent millions of people to jail or prison needlessly and empowered a criminal underclass to wreak massive harm on society.

You would think the lesson of prohibition brought would have clued these politicians to the realities of banning things. When you ban something you create a demand and a black market. Prohibition in the 20s helped Organized Crime to become rich and powerful. It cost serious amounts of money and manpower to take on those gangs, and the Mafia is still with us today. 

I can fully understand why people would not want to legalize drugs. Drugs cause a lot of harm when they are abused. But by criminalizing drugs, you drive drug abusers into secrecy and hiding. Which makes the problem much harder to deal with.

The vast majority of crime in the US is drug related or drug enabled, meaning the people involved were under the influence. If the government really wants to solve this problem they have to take a different tact. They have to consider changing the laws and seeing if an open approach works better. The evidence suggests it would. 

I agree, as before, but since so many federal employees would be put out of work, the Hamiltons will fight this tooth and nail.

Posted by Brock Townsend  on  12/02  at  07:54 AM

It doesn’t have to put Feds out of jobs, they go go over to another agency to deal with drug abusers. There will always be drug abusers, because some people seek escape and end up there. So first, take out the criminals who are getting rich selling to drug abusers by legalizing it. Then use the tax revenue to work on treatment programs and solutions to addiction.

But you’re right. Some people have too much vested in fighting the same failed war. It’s not solving the problem.

Posted by  on  12/02  at  11:03 AM
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