The War on Drugs

Too bad we didn't learn much from Prohibition. We outlawed booze, created a crime syndicate, saw local police corrupted, had our cities ravaged by gang wars over control and distribution while drinkers flouted the law.

Now we're waging the War on Drugs, supposedly to protect our children. Still, many children, as well as adults regularly use/abuse pot, hash, crack, coke, heroin, meth, ludes, lsd, and prescription pharmaceuticals. "Protection" is mere verbiage, an illusion. Those what want to use will find a way, legal or illegal, and there's no way to "protect" them.

If we look objectively at the War on Drugs, it's not working. We've created the drug cartels in Latin American and forced Mexico into a civil war of sorts which is killing innocent people and threatening the stability of the government. Our policies encourage Afghan farmers to raise poppies and thereby indirectly fund the jihadists.

We also have drug dealers here corrupting the police and judiciary with their bribe money. Gangs terrorize the streets in certain communities as they battle each other over the income from drug sales.

We are also spending billions of dollars a year to arm and equip the police and federal drug agents. Yet the drug problem grows ever larger. We're clearly wasting our money.

Some argue that the more police you have, the greater your security. But the inability of ever increasing numbers of police to eliminate the flow of drugs demonstrates that numbers alone are meaningless.

Why do we have a drug problem? Because they are people who want to use drugs and get high. This is not a good thing but it's a fact. Somewhere around 10% of any society will become addicted to some kind of drug: alcohol, opiates, pharmaceuticals, etc.

What should we do? The same thing we do with alcohol. Legalize all forms of drug use for people over 21. Let companies manufacture and sell drugs and then tax the hell out of their sale. With the tax revenues, we should create anti-drug education programs to warn non-users about the dangers of addiction and we should treat addicts who want to get off the stuff in rehab programs that offer effective medical treatment.

By legalizing drugs we would save billions. No need to fund the drug police. We would also sap the life blood out of the gangs and make our streets safer. We would need fewer police and end a lot of corruption--no one would have to pay off.

Some say, "But if you legalize, terrible things will happen." Can they be any worse than what we have now with teenagers shooting up innocent bystanders with assault rifles and the jails packed with people who like to smoke a joint every now and then but got caught holding a little more than the legal limit? I don't think so.

Will people die from drug overdoses and/or do terrible things? Yes, but no more than they do now. After all, millions of Americans are on drugs even as you're reading this. Legalizing it won't change how addicts act but it will decriminalize them which will save the rest of us a lot of trouble.

Another thing to keep in mind is we tolerate a lot damage from alcoholics. Some drink themselves to death. Others drive and get into horrible accidents and sometimes kill people. They also sometimes cause economic devastation and heartbreak for their families. We put up with that because we learned that outlawing booze creates even larger problems. I don't think addicts and drug users are any worse than drunks and should also be tolerated.

Isn't it time to use some common sense and end the War on Drugs?