Public Security – The Greatest Casualty of the Drug War

[malcolmkyle]

2. Stop right here!

Maybe you believe that it’s immoral to use a certain drug. But if you also wish such acts to become/remain criminalized, then surely you also have to accept responsibility for the dire unintended consequences of such un-thought-through folly?

Under our present regime, these certain plants/concoctions/drugs are sold only by criminals and terrorists; the huge black-market profits are used to bribe and threaten law enforcement officials; the availability and usage rates tend to go up, not down; the prisons have become filled to capacity with easily replaced vendors or smugglers. This list is endless!

Prohibition guarantees to criminals the power to threaten communities, and even whole states.

Ending drug prohibition won't be the complete answer to all our drug problems, just as the end of alcohol prohibition didn't end all the problems associated with alcohol. But it will surely ameliorate the crime and violence on our streets, and lessen the huge burden on our judicial system, while shrinking the immense incentives for corruption in public office.