The War on Drugs, Prohibition, and the Necessary Reform

    Drug laws are an outrage.  Regulatory reform in the laws of possession, which the adage says ‘is 9/10 of the law’, is the necessary protocol for the making of economic equilibrium.  When any product is considered to be “owned”, it assumes a place from which offense can be taken.   This creates a false sense of competitive rivalry between consumers.  With the guarantee of access being abundant and mutually protected by code of understanding and discipline, then, crime and poverty would become rare, if not extinct.

    Instead, the suppression of civil liberties has created a subculture of non-violent, “so-called” offenders.  A person’s intentions have been compromised for the excuse of the defense vs. a court of persecution and infringement, breeding a system of conditioned criminals.  Would-be-peaceable persons have been subjected to a hard-knocks life and an all-too-often, unnecessary death in the world of drug trafficking.  The problem was manufactured, and should be resolved.

    Drug trafficking in the United States is an unjust epidemic.  The scanning, “Big Brother” eyes of police and government agents have oppressed many of nature’s remedies for human woe and sickness and created plenty more crime in the process.  Our nation is trillions of dollars in debt, but repealing prohibition will solve that problem as well as raise standard of living for the entire population.

    For the last 40 years, the ongoing war on drugs in America has been fought between Federal and local governments and drug traffickers from all over the world on small levels of street corners to infamous, global cartels..  The war is an utter failure.  The prohibition of some things and not others is from “a false system of classification.” (Gould, 1990)  Tobacco, alcohol, and even bath salts in some places are sold to the public without consequence to the suppliers.  In fact, they receive income, as does the government, from the very profitable marketing of selling self-gratification. Ron Paul said in the Republican National Debate on November, 22, 2011, “Why don’t we handle drugs like we handle alcohol?  Alcohol is a deadly drug, and what about the really, deadly drugs, the prescription drugs?  They kill a lot more people than the illegal drugs.  So, the drug war is out of control…  It just hasn’t worked.” (Paul, 2011)

    The outlawing of drugs makes a market for criminals.  “Policymakers in the United States have chosen to define drug abuse as a legal problem rather than a public-health problem. This choice puts the criminal justice system at the center of a massive war on drugs. The drug war is an expanding enterprise with deep roots in the political and social fabric of the U.S. society. It is an effort that involves law enforcement, courts, corrections, education, health care, and a multitude of political groups.” (Should Drugs Be Legalized?, n.d)  Albert Einstein said, “The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law, for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.”  (Einstein, 1921)

    The United States government could learn much from the example of Portugal.  Portugal decriminalized all drugs and has seen a significant change in consumption and crime.  "The impact in the life of families and our society is much lower than it was before decriminalization," says Joao Castel-Branco Goulao, Portugal's "drug czar" and president of the Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction.  Population and cultural differences must be considered, of course, but the statistics don’t lie.  (Szalavitz, 2009)

    There is much to consider when suggesting legalization.  There is a lot of money to be had in drugs.  Cocaine sells for about $3000 per ounce—about twice the price of gold—but unlike gold, cocaine is easily reproduced.  The cost of jailing a street-corner dealer for a $200 transaction is $100,000 for 3 years.  This enforcement enlarges the prison population and has people emerging who will have a rougher time finding employment.  The war disenfranchises minorities.  “The ACLU estimates the war on drugs has permanently disenfranchised 14% of African-American men.”  (McDougall)  This is largely due to the fact that America has the highest incarceration rate on the planet.  Knowing this, it is no surprise that a n estimated 7.3% of black males ages 30-34 were in state or federal prison in 2010, and 67.5% of state prisoners with drug convictions in 2009 were minorities.  (Guerino, Paul; Harrison, Paige; Sabol, William J., 2011)  Besides minorities, it is an oddity that the U.S. is home to 5% of the world population, but 25% of the prisoners.  (Webb, n.d.)

    It isn’t just illicit drugs that bring are trafficked illegally.  People have faced felony charges for smuggling untaxed cigarettes to Indian reservations.  “Leroy Hawkins, 56, of 19 Moulson Street, was arrested on April 20 in Rochester by Tax Department investigators and officers from the Rochester Police Department.     
    During a search of his residence and vehicle, investigators found the untaxed cartons of cigarettes and cigars, which represent an estimated $4,000 in unpaid taxes to the state.”  (The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, 2010)  Another product to consider which is responsible for a lot of trouble for producers and traffickers is moonshine and homemade wine.  Alcohol was legalized in 1933 for sale to the public.

     If drugs were legalized, this would admit a failure for the government and its special interests but proclaim a win for society.  Trafficking would not be deadly but would be controlled.  Non-violent people would not be unjustly punished, and the negative aspects of the situation, such as addiction, could fade with the right, honest education.  This is a very important issue, because the end product will impact everyone.

REFERENCES

Albert Einstein, My First Impression of the U.S.A, 1921

Guerino, Paul; Harrison, Paige M.; and Sabol, William J., "Prisoners in 2010," Bureau of Justice Statistics, (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2011)

Maia Szalavitz, Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?, April 26, 2009n.d., Rochester Man Arrested For Trafficking Of Untaxed Cigarettes, The New York State Department of Taxation an Finance, April 27, 2010

Ron Paul in the Republican National Debate—November 11, 2011

Should Drugs Be Legalized?, n.d., http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Should-Drugs-Be-Legalized.topicArticleId-10065,articleId-9931.html

Senator Jim Webb, n.d.

Steven W. McDougall, The War on Drugs, n.d.

Stephen J. Gould, evolutionary biologist, Taxonomy as Politics, Dissent, winter 1990, p73