10.12.2007
Irrational Doom: How U.S. Drug Policy continues to do more harm than good
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” -Satayana
At midnight on January 16th 1920, the 18th Amendment, also known as the Volstead Act, went into effect, making the manufacture, distribution, sale, and consumption of intoxicating alcohol illegal in the United States of America. What followed was a decade of explosive criminality, a black market of illegal booze flowed from every border, port, and bathtub. Illegal “speakeasies” sprung up overnight. Violent clashes between rival gangs of bootleggers, the mafia, and police caused unimaginable dangers far greater than the imbibing of alcohol. Despite its good intentions to protect public health, and well-being, the “…Cure proved far more dangerous than the disease.” After 13 years of abysmal failure, the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st allowing those suffering from the woes of The Great Depression the right once more to legally drown their sorrows.
Despite the rather obvious lessons learned from the “grand experiment” of the 18th Amendment, the U.S. has consistently failed to apply these lessons to developing a sane and rational approach to drug policy. Prohibition has demonstratively proven that it doesn’t work. By rendering the production, distribution, sale, and consumption of certain substances, illegal, the U.S. government has merely driven them underground, promoting the formation of a criminal black market, drastically inflated their profit potential, and done absolutely nothing to prevent the same set of tragic consequences that go along with failures to learn from the past.
As of 2003, the affects of continued prohibition of drugs in the U.S. results in the average annual arrest of 1.5 million citizens, and another 400,000 incarcerated, for non-violent drug crimes; still another 1 million citizens remain on probation. The annual cost of drug prohibition at the federal level is nearly 20 billion dollars a year. The combined costs of U.S. drug policy on state and local governments, as-well-as the loss of tax revenue due to non-regulation, is easily in the billions of dollars per year.
U.S. drug prohibition law consumes 50% of all trial court time and requires the full time efforts of about 400,000 law enforcement officers, despite the fact that their efforts could be better utilized policing violent crimes and terrorism. The one-time cost to secure U.S. ports from smuggled nuclear weapons is estimated to be 2 billion dollars. The amount the U.S. has allocated to this vital security need: 93 million dollars. The amount of money the United States government spends annually to “protect us” from just marijuana: 4 billion dollars.
The United Nations currently values the international drug trade at approximately 400 billion dollars. It makes up about 8% of all international commerce. Far from inhibiting drug trafficking, current U.S. drug policies actually encourage the production, distribution, and sale, of illegal drugs. Estimates on the return-on-investment for involvement in the illegal drug trade, ranges anywhere from 5,000-20,000%. The U.S. led prohibition on global drug trafficking has made it so profitable that criminal cartels, impoverished nations, and even terrorist organizations, have all used them to provide funding for their various operations.
U.S. policy makers go so far to distort the truth concerning drug use in the U.S. to promote their wasteful tactics that it is unethical, immoral, and unconscionable. Anti-drug programs promote the belief that the “casual user” is a myth, and that all users regardless of choice, or consumption, should be considered “criminal addicts,” and treated as such. There have been no studies backed by the U.S. government which have ever honestly addressed the differences between those who freely choose to occasionally use mind-altering substances and those whose addiction leaves them little choice but to use them. The prevailing assumption seems to be there is no rational division between responsible casual use in the privacy of one’s own home, and abuse that constitutes a threat to public health and safety.
The highly encouraged perception that all drug users are “junkies,” is so widely accepted as truth that no other distinctions need be applied. If caught, so-called “mythical” casual users can expect to suffer far more harsh consequences than do addicts (because at least addiction is viewed upon as a “disease”). Cigarettes and alcohol, both of which are highly addictive, have no known medicinal purposes, yet they continue to enjoy broad legal government sanction, whereas marijuana, a non-addictive plant that is widely considered to have at least some medicinal benefits, does not.
The prohibition of alcohol turned many responsible adults, who occasionally enjoyed a few drinks, into “dangerous criminals.” Current drug policy in the U.S. revisits the same nightmare upon millions of responsible adults, who risk having their homes raided by police, their property seized, pay hefty fines, the loss of employment, face incarceration, and wind up with a criminal record, just to enjoy a few hours of a pleasure that doesn’t give them a headache the next morning. Worse still, people suffering from debilitating chronic pain, nausea, and terminal illnesses are denied the opportunity to increase the quality of their lives by the same irrational standards.
The continued stance of the U.S. with regards to drug policy is made even more farcical by the legal regulation and sale of alcohol and tobacco products, both highly addictive and proven to be dangerous to overall public health (the ultimate irony is that polls of high school age children demonstrate they have far greater access to marijuana than they do alcohol and tobacco precisely because it is regulated). Throughout the 20th Century, U.S. drug policy has never been guided by anything resembling rational sense, and it has gotten worse since the 21st. Government officials and anti-drug organizations continue to ignore the facts by continuing to try and legislate a change of attitude, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, ruining countless lives, straining our legal system, and providing profit-motives for thugs, impoverished nations, and terrorists, the world over.
The facts so many refuse to face is that continued drug prohibition has proven itself an irrational boondoggle that has served as a drain upon scarce resources at every level of our government. The only sane course is legalization, regulation, and taxation of most currently illegal drugs. This would provide additional funding to promote social change, education, and treatment for drug addition, while allowing those who would choose to use drugs privately, safely, and responsibly, the right to do so without fears of prosecution. Legalization would also undercut the efforts of criminal organizations, impoverished nations, and terrorist organizations, seeking to use drug smuggling as a means of profit.
The lessons we have learned from history and economics concerning smuggling of illegal substances demonstrates quite clearly that, as long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. By driving up the risks associated with the drug trade, all drug prohibition will ever succeed in doing is increasing its profitability at the expense of the people. The time is long overdue for a sane drug policy; one that does not promote a criminal underground, one that does not provide huge profit motives encouraging its proliferation, and one that clearly separates responsible drug use in the privacy of one’s own home from irresponsible drug use that constitutes a danger to others.
For more up-to-date information on how much of your money is being spent and more on the "War on Drugs," click here
Some factual data on the "drug war" paraphrased from The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
©J.S.Brown 2004-2007
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At midnight on January 16th 1920, the 18th Amendment, also known as the Volstead Act, went into effect, making the manufacture, distribution, sale, and consumption of intoxicating alcohol illegal in the United States of America. What followed was a decade of explosive criminality, a black market of illegal booze flowed from every border, port, and bathtub. Illegal “speakeasies” sprung up overnight. Violent clashes between rival gangs of bootleggers, the mafia, and police caused unimaginable dangers far greater than the imbibing of alcohol. Despite its good intentions to protect public health, and well-being, the “…Cure proved far more dangerous than the disease.” After 13 years of abysmal failure, the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st allowing those suffering from the woes of The Great Depression the right once more to legally drown their sorrows.
Despite the rather obvious lessons learned from the “grand experiment” of the 18th Amendment, the U.S. has consistently failed to apply these lessons to developing a sane and rational approach to drug policy. Prohibition has demonstratively proven that it doesn’t work. By rendering the production, distribution, sale, and consumption of certain substances, illegal, the U.S. government has merely driven them underground, promoting the formation of a criminal black market, drastically inflated their profit potential, and done absolutely nothing to prevent the same set of tragic consequences that go along with failures to learn from the past.
As of 2003, the affects of continued prohibition of drugs in the U.S. results in the average annual arrest of 1.5 million citizens, and another 400,000 incarcerated, for non-violent drug crimes; still another 1 million citizens remain on probation. The annual cost of drug prohibition at the federal level is nearly 20 billion dollars a year. The combined costs of U.S. drug policy on state and local governments, as-well-as the loss of tax revenue due to non-regulation, is easily in the billions of dollars per year.
U.S. drug prohibition law consumes 50% of all trial court time and requires the full time efforts of about 400,000 law enforcement officers, despite the fact that their efforts could be better utilized policing violent crimes and terrorism. The one-time cost to secure U.S. ports from smuggled nuclear weapons is estimated to be 2 billion dollars. The amount the U.S. has allocated to this vital security need: 93 million dollars. The amount of money the United States government spends annually to “protect us” from just marijuana: 4 billion dollars.
The United Nations currently values the international drug trade at approximately 400 billion dollars. It makes up about 8% of all international commerce. Far from inhibiting drug trafficking, current U.S. drug policies actually encourage the production, distribution, and sale, of illegal drugs. Estimates on the return-on-investment for involvement in the illegal drug trade, ranges anywhere from 5,000-20,000%. The U.S. led prohibition on global drug trafficking has made it so profitable that criminal cartels, impoverished nations, and even terrorist organizations, have all used them to provide funding for their various operations.
U.S. policy makers go so far to distort the truth concerning drug use in the U.S. to promote their wasteful tactics that it is unethical, immoral, and unconscionable. Anti-drug programs promote the belief that the “casual user” is a myth, and that all users regardless of choice, or consumption, should be considered “criminal addicts,” and treated as such. There have been no studies backed by the U.S. government which have ever honestly addressed the differences between those who freely choose to occasionally use mind-altering substances and those whose addiction leaves them little choice but to use them. The prevailing assumption seems to be there is no rational division between responsible casual use in the privacy of one’s own home, and abuse that constitutes a threat to public health and safety.
The highly encouraged perception that all drug users are “junkies,” is so widely accepted as truth that no other distinctions need be applied. If caught, so-called “mythical” casual users can expect to suffer far more harsh consequences than do addicts (because at least addiction is viewed upon as a “disease”). Cigarettes and alcohol, both of which are highly addictive, have no known medicinal purposes, yet they continue to enjoy broad legal government sanction, whereas marijuana, a non-addictive plant that is widely considered to have at least some medicinal benefits, does not.
The prohibition of alcohol turned many responsible adults, who occasionally enjoyed a few drinks, into “dangerous criminals.” Current drug policy in the U.S. revisits the same nightmare upon millions of responsible adults, who risk having their homes raided by police, their property seized, pay hefty fines, the loss of employment, face incarceration, and wind up with a criminal record, just to enjoy a few hours of a pleasure that doesn’t give them a headache the next morning. Worse still, people suffering from debilitating chronic pain, nausea, and terminal illnesses are denied the opportunity to increase the quality of their lives by the same irrational standards.
The continued stance of the U.S. with regards to drug policy is made even more farcical by the legal regulation and sale of alcohol and tobacco products, both highly addictive and proven to be dangerous to overall public health (the ultimate irony is that polls of high school age children demonstrate they have far greater access to marijuana than they do alcohol and tobacco precisely because it is regulated). Throughout the 20th Century, U.S. drug policy has never been guided by anything resembling rational sense, and it has gotten worse since the 21st. Government officials and anti-drug organizations continue to ignore the facts by continuing to try and legislate a change of attitude, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, ruining countless lives, straining our legal system, and providing profit-motives for thugs, impoverished nations, and terrorists, the world over.
The facts so many refuse to face is that continued drug prohibition has proven itself an irrational boondoggle that has served as a drain upon scarce resources at every level of our government. The only sane course is legalization, regulation, and taxation of most currently illegal drugs. This would provide additional funding to promote social change, education, and treatment for drug addition, while allowing those who would choose to use drugs privately, safely, and responsibly, the right to do so without fears of prosecution. Legalization would also undercut the efforts of criminal organizations, impoverished nations, and terrorist organizations, seeking to use drug smuggling as a means of profit.
The lessons we have learned from history and economics concerning smuggling of illegal substances demonstrates quite clearly that, as long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. By driving up the risks associated with the drug trade, all drug prohibition will ever succeed in doing is increasing its profitability at the expense of the people. The time is long overdue for a sane drug policy; one that does not promote a criminal underground, one that does not provide huge profit motives encouraging its proliferation, and one that clearly separates responsible drug use in the privacy of one’s own home from irresponsible drug use that constitutes a danger to others.
For more up-to-date information on how much of your money is being spent and more on the "War on Drugs," click here
Some factual data on the "drug war" paraphrased from The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
TANSTAAFL!
©J.S.Brown 2004-2007
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