REJECT THE WAR ON DRUGS

Both conservatives and liberals have waged their war on drugs for
decades, and they have reaped nothing but drug gangs, drug lords,
robberies, thefts, muggings, murders, dirty needles, overcrowded
prisons, decimated families.....

Conservatives never cease to fascinate me, given their professed
devotion to "freedom, free enterprise, and limited government" and their
ardent support of policies that violate that principle. One of the most
prominent examples is the drug war. In fact, if you're ever wondering
whether a person is a conservative or a libertarian, a good litmus-test
question is, How do you feel about the war on drugs? The conservative
will respond, "Even though I believe in freedom, free enterprise, and
limited government, we've got to continue waging the war on drugs." The
libertarian will respond, "End it. It is an immoral and destructive
violation of the principles of freedom, free enterprise, and limited
government."

The most recent example of conservative drug-war nonsense is an
article entitled "Winning the Drug War," by Jonathan V. Last in the
current issue of The Weekly Standard, one of the premier conservative
publications in the country. In his article, Last cites statistics
showing that drug usage among certain groups of Americans has
diminished and that supplies of certain drugs have decreased. He says
that all this is evidence that the war on drugs is finally succeeding
and that we just need to keep waging it for some indeterminate time
into the future, when presumably U.S. officials will finally be able
to declare "victory."

What conservatives never tell us is how final "victory" in the "war on
drugs" will ultimately be measured.

Of course, we've heard this type of "positive" drug-war nonsense for
the past several decades, at least since Richard Nixon declared war on
drugs back in the 1970s. What conservatives never tell us is how final
"victory" will ultimately be measured. Like all other drug warriors
for the past several decades, Last doesn't say, "The statistics are so
good that the drug war has now been won and therefore we can now end
it," but rather, "Victory is right around the corner. The statistics
are getting better. Let's keep going."

Last failed to mention what is happening to the people of Nuevo
Laredo, Mexico, where drug lords compete violently to export illegal
drugs into the United States to reap the financial benefits of
exorbitant black-market prices and profits that the drug war has
produced. Recently drug gangs fired high-powered weapons and a grenade
into the newsroom of La Manana, killing Jaime Orozco Tey, a
40-year-old father of three. Several other journalists have been
killed in retaliation for their stories on the drug war, and
newspapers are now self-censoring in fear of the drug lords. There are
also political killings in Nuevo Laredo arising out of the drug war,
including the city's mayor after he had served the grand total of nine
hours in office. According to the New York Times, "In Nuevo Laredo,
the federal police say average citizens live in terror of drug
dealers. Drug-related killings have become commonplace." The New
York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that the U.S.-Mexico
border region is now one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters.

Not surprisingly, Last did not mention these statistics in his "We're
winning the drug war" article.

During Prohibition, there were undoubtedly people such as Last
claiming, "Booze consumption is down. We're winning the war on booze.
Al Capone is in jail. We've got to keep on waging the war on booze
until we can declare final victory."

Fortunately, Americans living at that time finally saw through such
nonsense, especially given the massive Prohibition-related violent
crime that the war on booze had spawned. They were right to finally
legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol and treat alcohol
consumption as a social issue, not a criminal-justice problem.

Both conservatives and liberals have waged their war on drugs for
decades, and they have reaped nothing but drug gangs, drug lords,
robberies, thefts, muggings, murders, dirty needles, overcrowded
prisons, decimated families, record drug busts, government corruption,
infringements on civil liberties, violations of financial privacy,
massive federal spending, and, of course, ever-glowing statistics
reflecting drug-war "progress."

Americans would be wise to reject, once and for all, the war on drugs,
and cast drug prohibition, like booze prohibition, into the ashcan of
history.