Pubdate: Wed, 13 Nov 2013
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2013 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Scott Soffen
Note: Scott Soffen was the Libertarian candidate for Congress in the 
4th District of Maryland in 2012, and he intends to run for Congress 
in the 7th district for 2014.

IT'S TIME TO END THE FUTILE WAR ON DRUGS

America faces a plethora of social problems in its inner cities: 
Crime and gang violence. A growing disrespect for the law. A prison 
system bursting at the seams. Children growing up without their 
fathers. An entire class of unemployable able-bodied men. Perceived 
racial profiling by the police. And although each of these issues 
seems distinctly different on the surface, they all share an 
underlying cause. They are all exacerbated by the continuing war on drugs.

The term "war on drugs" was coined by Richard Nixon in 1971, though 
the efforts began a decade earlier when the United Nations 
implemented the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international 
treaty limiting drug production and trafficking. After 50 years of 
fighting this war, it's time to look back and evaluate its effectiveness.

According to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 
23 million Americans, or roughly 9 percent of the U.S. population, 
were illicit drug users. So if the original objective of the war on 
drugs was to rid the country of recreational drugs, it has been a 
dismal failure.

But that is not so say that the war on drugs hasn't had a major 
impact on society.

One in every 100 Americans is in prison or jail, the highest 
incarceration rate in the world (including North Korea), and the bulk 
of these Americans are imprisoned for drug-related crimes. The costs 
associated with the police, courts and prison system are high, but 
these are only part of the costs. The dehumanizing environment within 
prisons, combined with the concentration of criminals, serves as a 
training ground for future criminals. Those leaving prison lack the 
education and work experience that might make them eligible for 
employment. Instead, they have the scarlet letter of being an 
"ex-con," that effectively makes them ineligible for work. They 
inevitably become the parasites of the social safety net.

The cost of their imprisonment does not end there. The families they 
leave behind are broken - their children grow up without a father.

The illegal drug trade introduces children to a life of crime. 
Inner-city children observe that the wages their unskilled labor can 
earn in the bustling market for illegal drugs are far greater than 
that earned at McDonalds. It is almost as though the U.S. government 
found a solution to the living wage controversy: Have the unskilled 
work in the illegal drug industry. After children get a taste of the 
camaraderie, not to mention the flexible work hours, afforded by the 
illegal drug trade, it is difficult to get them to work in the legal economy.

Fighting the war on drugs is not only a distraction for law 
enforcement from fighting "real crime," but it results in ancillary 
problems. Because drugs are widely available and broadly used, it 
makes "breaking the law" seem like playful mischief rather than a 
serious issue. It is a source of much racial strife, as urban blacks 
are disproportionately targeted for arrest and prosecution.

Here's the bottom line: In an attempt to prevent people from harming 
themselves with recreational drugs, the state has done more harm than good.

There too is a libertarian argument to ending the war on drugs. 
Whether it is Lipitor or heroin, shouldn't I have the right to 
purchase the items I want to? To borrow a phrase from the pro-choice 
movement, isn't it my right to control my body?

Opponents are naturally concerned about the consequences of 
legalizing recreational drugs. So what would happen if we were to 
legalize drugs? First of all, all these drugs are freely available 
now ( just ask your teenager). Second, lack of regulation means that 
rather than trusted companies (such as Philip Morris) selling 
products through reputable distributors (such as 7-11), we have drug 
dealers infiltrating our schools and marketing to our youth.

Would America suddenly become one giant opium den? Empirical evidence 
suggests that this would not be the case. Drug liberalization in 
Portugal actually lowered illicit drug use. Although it is admittedly 
too early to come to definitive conclusions, marijuana legalization 
in late-2012 in Colorado and Washington State have yet to produce a 
swell of addicts.

In 1920 Prohibition was instituted to save the nation from the ills 
of alcohol. Thirteen years later, Prohibition was ended because it 
had only served to support organized crime and had little effect on 
alcohol consumption. It's time we end the prohibition on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom