DRUG PROHIBITION FAILS

Drug prohibition will always fail in a free society. The statutory
prohibition of a product wanted by a large number of citizens always
produces a black market, as it did during Prohibition. This is a
basic law of economics. This kind of black market is impossible to
eradicate without the use of punishments too severe for a
non-authoritarian society to tolerate, such as execution for drug use.

Ironically, really effective enforcement of drug laws always produces
higher prices, to compensate for the reduced supply and the increased
risk. Higher prices encourage more people to enter the black market
as sellers. Even with severe drug law enforcement, the use of drugs
stays at about the same level, while the misery of drug users increases.

If the United States regulated drugs, instead of prohibiting them,
and established reasonable rules for sales and use, as it does with
alcohol, an orderly and legal market would be formed. The black
market system would soon disappear.

Not all of the problems would be solved by legalization; there would
still be people harmed by drug use, but the problems would be similar
to the familiar ones that now attend alcohol use.

HOWARD MASS

El Cerrito