CALL OFF USELESS WAR ON DRUGS

This Fight Has Become A War On People And The Bill Of Rights

As most Libertarians agree, the best way to win the so-called war on
drugs is to end it once and for all. Not partially, but completely. As
long as there are any drugs that are illegal, there will be people
willing to risk prison in order to profit from them as well as use
them.

It's a classic no-win situation.

You would think that someone would've paid attention to that old adage
about being doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past if we don't
learn from them and draw a correlation between the current drug war
and alcohol Prohibition. But, for a non-Libertarian politician to
apply a little common sense to this multibillion dollar-a-year fiasco
would be political suicide.

In what has become a war on people and the Bill of Rights, millions of
nonviolent high school and college kids have had their lives shattered
by prison sentences that are not at all proportional to their "crimes."

Ironically, many of these "criminals" were caught doing the very
things that politicians have been accused of, and even admitted,
doing. In the 2000 presidential campaign, both George W. Bush and Al
Gore decreed that the punishment for doing what many believe they
themselves did should be a minimum of 10 years in prison. Former
Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne wanted to ask both
Bush and Gore, "Would your lives have been better had you spent 10
years in a federal prison for your youthful indiscretions?"

The debate over the war on drugs has people firmly entrenched on both
sides of the issue. Some people believe it is no business of our
government if they want to partake in moderate drug use, not unlike
smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, in their homes after a hard
day at work. If they don't hurt anyone else or break any laws then
they should be left alone. By contrast, I'm sure families who have
lost members to drug overdoses would like to see all drugs destroyed.

But when are people going to start being held accountable for their
own actions? Yes, drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease. But
unlike cancer, it is 100 percent preventable. If the inflicted person
had chosen to not start abusing drugs in the first place, there would
be no problem. But there are always people who are going to be
addicted to something and willing to risk their very lives for some
sort of "high."

Suppose that every drug in existence were legalized tomorrow. Would
people still die of overdoses? Absolutely. Would children still try
drugs? Sure. But how would that be any different than what goes on
now?

For starters, legalizing drugs would remove the criminal element much
the same way that ending Prohibition cleaned up our streets of gangs
fighting over territories. These thugs would not be able to compete
with pharmaceutical companies that produce affordable, safe, nontoxic
drugs.

There will always be crime, but legalizing drugs would remove the
black market and allocate resources to fight violent crime instead of
being used to go after people who may harm themselves but are no
threat to us.

Our own government has used the drug war to check out bank accounts,
perform strip-searches at airports, monitor e-mail and even take
property without even charging a crime because of asset forfeiture
laws that state that property, unlike people, is not innocent until
proven guilty.

If you give a police officer the OK to search your car, he can
disassemble it completely and does not have to put it back together.
Think about that the next time someone's argument is, "Well, if you
aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?"

Drug use is a moral decision, and you cannot legislate morality. When
people break the law, whether on drugs or not, they should be
prosecuted. Otherwise they should be left alone if they aren't hurting
anyone else. Making drug use illegal is wrong. Legalizing drugs would
solve more problems than are caused by this insane war.

Note: Columnist Danny Brooks of Davidson is a computer programmer/analyst
and member of the Cabarrus Libertarian Party.