Studies and practical experience from other nations have shown time and again that decriminalization, treatment of addiction as a disease and that legal, heavily taxed, responsible use of drugs is far less destructive to society as a whole than a quixotic war to abolish demand for the substances.
We live in an era of out of control deficit spending, Afghani warlords funded by heroin money, America losing ground in the economic, political and scientific sectors, and deteriorating infrastructure at home. All that said, how can we justify continuing to spend billions of dollars on prosecuting otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying Americans for victimless crimes?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for prosecuting intoxicated drivers, those who distribute to the underaged, and so fourth; that's exactly what we do with Alcohol. But, I don't see the difference in an adult having a drink vs taking a hit in the privacy of their own home, if they aren't doing anything stupid while under the influence. The government mandating what substances are "OK" and which are "bad" is just another form of government interference and power scope creep.
Remember, the war on drugs has been shown to have next to no bearing on the level of demand for the substances in question. Indeed, at most it can hope to reduce supply, which just increases the price for the remaining supply, thus increasing incentive to provide more supply, and so on. You can't fight the market forces with money, and all the treasure we spend on attempting to only ends up enriching the cartels and warlords, many of whom are the same ones we are going after in this "War on Terror".
If we want to "win" the "War on Terror", we need to take the funding away from the warlords, and the way to do that would be to start farming poppy in the USA, regulate the usage of the derivative substances, and eliminate the middle man. The prices would drop, and the warlords would lose their cash cow.
So, why are we still fighting the War on Drugs? Why is no one talking about ending it?
Slashdot Mirror
Studies and practical experience from other nations have shown time and again that decriminalization, treatment of addiction as a disease and that legal, heavily taxed, responsible use of drugs is far less destructive to society as a whole than a quixotic war to abolish demand for the substances. We live in an era of out of control deficit spending, Afghani warlords funded by heroin money, America losing ground in the economic, political and scientific sectors, and deteriorating infrastructure at home. All that said, how can we justify continuing to spend billions of dollars on prosecuting otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying Americans for victimless crimes? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for prosecuting intoxicated drivers, those who distribute to the underaged, and so fourth; that's exactly what we do with Alcohol. But, I don't see the difference in an adult having a drink vs taking a hit in the privacy of their own home, if they aren't doing anything stupid while under the influence. The government mandating what substances are "OK" and which are "bad" is just another form of government interference and power scope creep. Remember, the war on drugs has been shown to have next to no bearing on the level of demand for the substances in question. Indeed, at most it can hope to reduce supply, which just increases the price for the remaining supply, thus increasing incentive to provide more supply, and so on. You can't fight the market forces with money, and all the treasure we spend on attempting to only ends up enriching the cartels and warlords, many of whom are the same ones we are going after in this "War on Terror". If we want to "win" the "War on Terror", we need to take the funding away from the warlords, and the way to do that would be to start farming poppy in the USA, regulate the usage of the derivative substances, and eliminate the middle man. The prices would drop, and the warlords would lose their cash cow. So, why are we still fighting the War on Drugs? Why is no one talking about ending it?