Pubdate: Fri, 11 Apr 2014
Source: Cavalier Daily (U of VA Edu)
Copyright: 2014 The Cavalier Daily, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.cavalierdaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/550
Author: Ben Rudgley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

LEGALIZE DRUGS

The War on Drugs Should End Because It Is Costly, Anti-American and 
Unnecessary

The purpose of this piece is not to disprove the widespread notion 
that drug use is bad; rather, I want to illustrate how legalization 
is the best way to limit the social, human and economic costs of drug 
use. As a clarifier: this argument covers recreational drugs like 
marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA, LSD and heroin.

A brief outline of theoretical, economic and public health and safety 
arguments will demonstrate how legalization is the best approach to 
taking on the enormous challenge presented by the growing illicit 
drug trade and the War on Drugs that is spiraling out of control - 
both in lives lost and tax dollars wasted.

In 2003, the illicit drug border was a $320 billion industry.

That was almost 1 percent of the world's GDP and exceeded the GDP of 
88 percent of the world's countries.

The War on Drugs, one of the world's most costly wars at present, has 
killed or displaced over 1.6 million in Mexico alone between 2005 and 
2010. The sheer enormity of the drug trade begs the question: whom 
does the status quo help? The answer is drug cartels, distributors 
and dealers, who profit from the exorbitant risk-inflated costs while 
American businesses, the American economy and the American people 
lose. Indeed, drug kingpins readily admit this: for example, drug 
magnate Jorge Roman called the War on Drugs "a sham put on the 
American taxpayer" that is "good for business."

Let's begin with the foundational principle that we should be able to 
do whatever we please so long as it doesn't directly prevent others 
from doing the same. Recreational drug use in one's own home doesn't 
harm anyone else nor does it infringe on others' personal liberties.

Though illicit drug use can detrimentally affect others or dependents 
indirectly, so can alcoholism, adultery, smoking cigarettes and 
chronic overeating - none of which can be justifiably outlawed either.

The paternalistic notion that the government should protect us from 
ourselves is anathema to what George Washington et al fought for when 
they founded this republic.

Thus, individual liberty and self-governance - key ideals of the 
American political tradition - stand to benefit from legalization of drugs.

If you legalize drugs and put manufacturing in the hands of regulated 
American businesses, myriad economic benefits ensue.

First, manufacturing, regulatory and sales jobs associated with the 
drug trade, and its enormous profits, would be transferred from the 
hands of criminals to law-abiding Americans and American businesses. 
Second, tax revenue from the sale of currently illicit drugs would be 
lucrative and could help fund schools, hospitals and medical 
initiatives that could treat drug addiction as a medical condition 
and not a crime; one study estimated that the tax revenue on drugs 
(at similar rates to alcohol and tobacco) would yield $46.7 billion annually.

Third, the federal government could achieve greater fiscal integrity 
by ending the War on Drugs that costs $41.3 billion each year just 
domestically - the United States sends many more billions to Latin 
Americans to fight their own fruitless wars on drugs.

Fourth, the United States spends countless taxpayer dollars on 
locking up non-violent drug offenders; indeed, this country, with the 
highest incarceration rate in the world, is home to 25 percent of the 
world's imprisoned and has over 2.3 million people behind bars (many 
of these were jailed for marijuana possession and are now becoming 
hardened criminals).

By pulling the rug out from under organized crime, legalization of 
drugs would also improve public safety.

Organized crime thrives during drug prohibition; during the era of 
alcohol prohibition homicide rates rose astronomically. It is not a 
stretch to say that Americans would be safer if organized crime's 
main source of revenue was eliminated. Additionally, it is hardly 
far-fetched to argue that treating rather than imprisoning drug 
addicts through initiatives like free, clean needle distribution in 
inner-city areas would be a boon to public health. Furthermore, 
federal regulations will compel drugs to be pure, whereas the status 
quo exacerbates - even incentivizes - the problem of dealers cutting 
MDMA, for instance, with cheaper, unknown, often more dangerous substances.

How many more Americans have to die from drug-related violence and 
organized crime, while federal deficits climb ever higher, for 
legalization to be seriously considered and promoted?

The legalization of drugs would promote individual liberty and 
self-governance while creating jobs, fixing the deficit, helping - 
rather than hurting - drug addicts and taking on organized crime.

If Einstein was right in saying that insanity is "doing the same 
thing over and over again and expecting different results," then 
maybe the War on Drugs and prohibition, not legalization, are crazy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom