WHAT IF ALL DRUGS WERE LEGAL? (GASP!)

The Drug Warriors' biggest argument against medical marijuana is that
it's only the opening wedge in a movement toward total legalization of
drugs. So, supposedly, we have to "nip it in the bud" -- in the words
of Deputy Barney Fife, the nation's first Drug Czar.

What if the Drug Warriors are right?

What if legalizing medical marijuana turned out to be the first step
on a journey that ended in the outright repeal of every drug law? What
would America be like?

Understandably, many Americans fear that with no drug laws, we would
have hundreds of thousands of addicts, crack babies, children trying
drugs, and other evils. But that's what we have now.

Let's assume the worst:

If all drugs were legal, addicts would no longer pay black-market
prices to criminals for drugs of questionable and dangerous origin.
They would get drugs produced by legitimate pharmaceutical companies
and pay market prices. They would no longer die from buying toxic
drugs, and they would no longer have to mug innocent people to support
their habits.

If all drugs were legal, addicts could seek help by going to doctors
- -- no longer afraid of being prosecuted for their medical problems.

If all drugs were legal, criminal drug dealers would no longer be on
our streets. They couldn't compete with the low, free-market prices
for drugs sold at pharmacies.

If all drugs were legal, criminal drug dealers would no longer prey
upon our children -- any more than distilleries and breweries try to
infiltrate schools to hook kids on alcohol. When I grew up in Los
Angeles in the 1940s, the worst schools were safer than L.A.'s best
schools are today.

If all drugs were legal, our government would no longer be dispensing
propaganda that makes children want to try the forbidden fruit.

Reducing street violence:

If all drugs were legal, our prisons would be emptied of hundreds of
thousands of non-violent people who have never done harm to anyone
else. No longer would over-crowded prisons cause truly violent
criminals to be free on early release and plea bargains to terrorize
the rest of us.

If all drugs were legal, law-enforcement resources would be available
to fight violent crime, instead of being used to chase people who may
harm themselves but are no threat to us.

If all drugs were legal, much of the street violence would end -- as
it did when Alcohol Prohibition ended -- because gangs of thugs would
no longer be fighting over drug territories.

If all drugs were legal, police corruption would diminish, because
criminals could no longer use black-market drug money to gain immunity
by subverting weak policemen.

If all drugs were legal, the government could no longer use the Drug
War as an excuse to tear up the Bill of Rights and pry into your bank
account, strip-search you at an airport, tear your car apart, monitor
your e-mail, or seize your property without even charging you with a
crime.

Why do we know this?

Why do I think America would be like this if all drugs were
legal?

Because that's the way it was before the drug laws were passed. Yes,
there were people whose lives were destroyed by drugs then -- just as
some people today destroy their lives with drugs, alcohol, financial
mistakes, or various character weaknesses -- but far fewer people lost
their lives to drugs when they were legal.

And America's streets were peaceful.

Has America changed since then? Of course it has. But cause-and-effect
relationships don't change. Force still begets force. Government
programs still lead to unintended and destructive consequences.

Re-legalizing drugs would put a stop to those destructive consequences
- -- end the criminal black market, end the violence, end the incentive
to hook children, and end the production of toxic drugs that kill people.

We have to quit being afraid of the unknown, and instead recognize
what we do know -- that the Drug War is doing enormous harm to society.

If we care about our children, if we care about our cities, if we care
about our country, we have to end the insane War on Drugs.

Harry Browne was the 2000 Libertarian presidential candidate. More of
his articles can be read at -- http://www.harrybrowne.org/ -- and his
books are available at HBBooks.com.