Most people believe the so called War on Drugs started in the 1970s. In reality, drug prohibition has been around far longer. While alcohol prohibition was repealed, drugs remained illegal. Without exaggeration, this policy has been the biggest failure of the 20th century. Trillions of dollars have been wasted, nations have been de-stabilized and yet drugs continue to flow like water in every community in the nation at ever lower prices. Every so often there is an 'epidemic' of the moment. Right now heroin is the big boogey man but crack cocaine, meth and ecstasy along with marijuana have all had their days of hysteria. Research is now showing some interesting facts. While no one is arguing that drugs are good, there is mounting evidence that most drug users are not irrational nor slaves to their drugs of choice. The ones that are normally have mental illness as well as drug problems.
There are a huge list of negatives concerning the drug war. IMO, they far outnumber the negatives of the drugs themselves especially because drugs are so freely available to anyone including kids in elementary school. Why do people still support this policy? Is it simply because we don't know what else to do and can't imagine drugs being legal like they once were? Drugs were legal for all of human civilization until 1 century ago yet no historian has ever mentioned drug abuse as a factor in the collapse of any society.
If you support prohibition, can you even say why? I disagree with it on the grounds of civil liberties as well as a myriad of practical reasons. This is one thing we could change rather quickly to reduce crime and take money out of the hands of terrorists. The savings and tax money could be put into treatment for both drug abuse and mental illness. I would suggest that regulation and treatment would be far more effective at curbing destructive drug abuse than law enforcement and interdiction. We already know these things do not work.
There are a huge list of negatives concerning the drug war. IMO, they far outnumber the negatives of the drugs themselves especially because drugs are so freely available to anyone including kids in elementary school. Why do people still support this policy? Is it simply because we don't know what else to do and can't imagine drugs being legal like they once were? Drugs were legal for all of human civilization until 1 century ago yet no historian has ever mentioned drug abuse as a factor in the collapse of any society.
If you support prohibition, can you even say why? I disagree with it on the grounds of civil liberties as well as a myriad of practical reasons. This is one thing we could change rather quickly to reduce crime and take money out of the hands of terrorists. The savings and tax money could be put into treatment for both drug abuse and mental illness. I would suggest that regulation and treatment would be far more effective at curbing destructive drug abuse than law enforcement and interdiction. We already know these things do not work.