WHY DO GOVERNMENTS PROHIBIT SOME DRUGS?

Community policing efforts on the north end of the city are focusing on
keeping drug dealers off the streets, Lafayette Police Chief Ronald
Boudreaux told the Committee for Rebuild Lafayette North on Monday night.

The Committee should know why governments prohibit certain drugs.

Is it to protect users from harm?

No, that can't be the reason because users suffer more (adulterated drugs
and jail time) when a drug is banned as compared to when it is legally
available, and besides, the most dangerous drugs of all, alcohol and
tobacco, are legal.

Is it to reduce the crime associated with illegal drugs?

No, that can't be the reason because banning a drug always gives rise to
more crime (drug cartels, petty crimes by users as prohibition makes drug
prices much higher, violent disputes between dealers) than when the drug is
legally available.

Is it to distract our attention from more important issues and to provide
bigger budgets by conducting a brutal, Hitler-like program to ruin the
lives of the innocent few who ingest or sell certain drugs?

Bingo.

Alan Randell, Victoria, BC, Canada