Monday, November 19, 2018

The War on Drugs is Lost

    Over the last fifty years, America’s war on drugs has cost over a trillion dollars. The demand for drugs has remained constant nevertheless. It’s been a gigantic waste. The war has been lost from the very beginning.  
 
The criminalization of drugs makes America more violent. People who supply illegal drugs would be jailed if they went to court to defend their property rights against other suppliers. Instead, they defend their rights with violence or the threat of violence. 

Latin America has only eight percent of the world’s population. But mostly because of America’s drug laws, Latin American nations have one-third of the world’s homicides. Much of El Salvador is ruled by transnational criminal networks that terrorize the population. Some people in the caravan now approaching America are families trying to get away from the violence. 

The money used in the war on drugs has been unavailable for programs that could reduce overdoses and infectious diseases. Drugs should be treated as medical problems, not crimes. 

Half a million Americans are incarcerated because they’ve possessed drugs or sold it peacefully to those who chose to buy it. 

The war is fought among the poor. Many potential black entrepreneurs end up tragically as convicted felons. If children of the elite were being jailed in significant numbers, the war on drugs would quickly be terminated. 

The drug war has done little good. But like the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, the war on drugs has done tremendous harm.