Pubdate: Mon, 11 Nov 2013
Source: Daily Mississippian (U of MS Edu)
Copyright: 2013 The Daily Mississippian
Contact:  http://www.thedmonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1345
Author: Cory Ferraez
Note: Cory Ferraez is a third-year law student from Columbus.

DRUG WAR FAILURE

We often hear about wars and conflicts abroad but regrettably pay 
little attention to a real detrimental war here in the States: the 
war on drugs. It has been an abysmal failure.

Let's list a few failures so eloquently written by Laurence Vance: It 
has failed to prevent drug abuse. It has failed to keep drugs out of 
the hands of addicts. It has failed to keep drugs away from 
teenagers. It has failed to reduce the demand for drugs. It has 
failed to stop the violence associated with drug trafficking. It has 
failed to help drug addicts get treatment. It has failed to have an 
impact on the use or availability of most drugs in the United States.

All of these failures are true and well-documented. And over the next 
few weeks, I'm going to bring the issue close to home, right here in 
our very own Lafayette County and our narcotics unit. Before I get 
there, though, I just want to briefly preface this topic with a 
broader view so you know where I'm coming from.

You know, there isn't much good that comes from drug usage. Even 
Ludwig Von Mises correctly noted, "it is an established fact that 
alcoholism, cocainism, and morphinism are deadly enemies of life, of 
health, and of the capacity for work and enjoyment." Apply that 
statement to most any drug.

Yet, we have this tendency to overlook logic for the principle that 
it is the duty of government to protect the individual from his own 
foolishness and shenanigans. Once this principle is believed, it 
certainly makes it difficult to raise serious objections against 
further intrusions.

I don't mind the good intentions, but we have shown very little 
success by giving billions of dollars to a cause whose benefits are 
far outweighed by its harm. Not to mention worse outcomes of a 
clogged judicial system, corrupted law enforcement, overpopulated 
prisons and the disintegration of civil liberties.

Here in Mississippi, our enforcement of drug laws ruins people's 
lives - usually over simple nonviolent "offenses." Our drug 
enforcement overwhelming negatively affects blacks, and I think the 
NAACP should be up in arms about the rate at which blacks are 
incarcerated due to these federal policies.

There are stories of tragedy due to drug usage. I understand lives 
have and will be ruined over it. But far more families and lives are 
ruined by drug prohibition.

When it comes to our bad habits and vices, the state only can use 
compulsion and force in attempting to eradicate them. Instead we 
should enable the principles of tolerance and persuasion. For if we 
are truly free, we must be able to endure our neighbors' acts and 
behaviors that are contrary to what we pronounce proper, without 
yelling for police intervention and compulsion. If you fail to 
convince someone to change their ways by the soundness of your ideas, 
you should not look to the state to do it for you; instead, you 
should question your own capabilities. While you attempt to question 
those, I'll continue to write my next articles on drug policies and 
their negative effects. I just hope you'll find them persuasive.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom