The Failed War on Drugs

One of the most counter-productive policies of recent decades has been the War on Drugs. It resulted in prison population growing four times. And it turned the inner city into a war zone.

Yes, drugs can be harmful; but so can alcohol and tobacco. Neither of these substances is against the law, and I do not see why marijuana or LSD should be.

Most of the crime associated with drugs is due not to drugs themselves but to the fact that they are illegal. Mafia had its heyday during the Prohibition, when alcohol was against the law and only the criminals could supply it. Since drugs are illegal, that creates a bonanza for gangs and cartels, both of them doing what they do in the same way as criminal entities have always done it – brutally.

The War on Drugs has created two parasitical infrastructures. One is the gangs and cartels to supply the drugs; the other is a bloated prison bureaucracy. In Netherlands, where drugs are legal, incarceration rates are one tenth those of the United States; and there is much less violent crime.

The people who pushed for the War on Drugs are the same people who advocate for small government. A small government is not a government that tells people what they can put into their bodies. America's vast incarceration rates are not “the price for a free society.” Netherlands is a much freer society, and its incarceration rates are much lower.

Yes, there are drug users who become irresponsible. But there are many responsible people in places like California who use marijuana, and it does not harm their lives in any way. The only negative consequence they get is if they get arrested; and that is not the fault of drugs but the fault of drugs being against the law.

The War on Drugs must be wound down. It is a failed policy, and its results have been disastrous. Drugs can be bad for people; however there are many other things that are bad for people that are legal. It is not up to the government to tell people in a free country what they can put into their bodies. And criminalizing drugs empowers only the real criminals.