For many of us who already understand the unintended consequences of the “War On Drugs” this video covers most of the main arguments; however, it puts it in a way that I think almost any rational thinking person could understand.
At the very least those who are still for the WODs must acknowledge that it hasn’t come without its fair share of consequences. In fact, it would be hard to prove that the WODs has been working at all. It certainly hasn’t succeeded in deterring others from experimenting with drugs and, if anything, it has only added more dangers to society by creating a black market and an environment susceptible to gangs, violence, and other criminal behavior.
One could of course make an argument for WOD reform, but it isn’t nearly as compelling as the argument to just get rid of prohibition entirely. America’s past history with alcohol prohibition is the best example anyone will ever need that drug prohibition simply doesn’t work: it doesn’t make people safer, and it doesn’t get people to make healthier decisions.
We are going to need to change our approach if we have any desire to build a better society.
This is the third time within the last couple of weeks that Judge Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” has covered the War On Drugs, and its utter failure as a government motive to protect its citizens from substance abuse. Even though I already reported on one of these segments at Legalize It? Director of NORML on Marijuana Prohibition, because this is a topic I find very interesting, I decided to report on this latest update as well.
Jacob Hornberger, the founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation , a non-profit libertarian educational facility, says Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman predicted the failure of the War On Drugs back in the 1970s, back when then-President Richard Nixon first defined the movement. Since then, Hornberger argues, the WOD has proved itself to be a failed war. He claims the best way to fix this mess is to do the same thing we did with alcohol prohibition – end it!
Napolitano agrees with Hornberger; he believes the War On Drugs is unconstitutional, a waste of time, and a waste of the American people’s money and resources. As a result of some of these laws, innocent people’s lives have been ruined by the hands of the state.
NAPOLITANO: Is it controversial for people in the public eye to come out in favor of the legalization of the private use of recreational drugs?
HORNBERGER: Well when I was bringing this up 20 years ago on radio talk shows I could light up the phone calls. People were just shocked at the possibility that drugs could be legalized. Twenty years later it is now a legitimate position…What do the drug warriors have left? All they have is their good intentions, and that is not enough. They have made the situation worse.
According to Hornberger it is not uncommon today to see police officers, federal judges, prosecutors, and lawyers against the War On Drugs.
HORNBERGER: We have argued for 30 years now, Judge, that the free market would put these drug dealers and drug cartels out of business instantaneously. And the article to which you are referring, where the private sector is having these marijuana farms, is proving that. These cartels are having a difficult time competing against these legitimate marijuana farms. Which leads us to believe that if you legalize the whole market, [then] these drug gangs and cartels would go out of business overnight.
According to this CNN poll conducted earlier this year 95% were in favor of marijuana legalization.
Is it time politicians start listening to the American people? Can we ever return to a society that respects the individual’s freedom to choose his own pursuit of happiness, as long as it does not undermine the liberties of another? What is stopping legislators from legalizing drugs like marijuana and regulating it similarly to how we regulate alcohol? Over the last decade I have noticed a surge in people speaking up on this issue – hopefully we can come to our senses sooner rather than later. America, let your voice be heard!
“ We are losing the war on drugs. Well you know what that implies? There’s a war going on, and people on drugs are winning it! Well, what does that tell you about drugs? Some smart, creative motherfuckers on that side.”
- Bill Hicks
The war on drugs in many ways captures the essence of how the American Progressive movement claims its moral omnipotence and feels the obligation to dominate man’s ways towards nothing but the elite’s conception of a “moral enlightenment” for society.
These same moral soldiers believe they can make man good through the use of force and persuasion by means of a gun. Thus is what governments seek to do. Thus is what evil men desire: to exercise their will over others, judge right and wrong based on their own disposition, and enact there subjective ideas into civil law.
This is not an argument against governments entirely (although the idea should never be too absurd for debate), but simply an argument against the psychology of governments and what most always drives their existence: the desires of men for more power and more control over other men.
Prohibition is one of the greatest examples of government “good intentions” actually hurting society more than benefiting it. The only reason we have stuck with such a bad idea for so long is because the decision to legalize drugs violates most people’s intuition, and even in the face of countless evidence we feel compelled to stick to the same bad idea.
But prohibition has a dangerous history, and even after Marijuana activists and War On Drugs opponents have reminded us time and time again about America’s past with alcohol prohibition, the public still remains largely ignorant.
The fact that products or commodities that would otherwise be sold freely for profit in a free market are now – by law – off the market immediately creates not only the opportunity, but a societal necessity for a black market, especially with drugs as high in demand as marijuana.
A black market creates criminals out of otherwise productive members of society – those who are merely providing a service that is desired by the marketplace. Black markets are a lifeline for gangs; the same gangs that take the lives of innocent people, and turn our children into violent animals. Prohibition and the black market push low-income families towards riskier behaviors just so they are able to provide food for their children and gives money-hungry gang leaders a safe haven to spread violence and hate.
What do we have to worry about if drugs are legalized? The most common complaint we hear on the news is that more of our children will begin to use them. However, this is fallacious thinking. What is going to stop a drug dealer when he is already breaking countless laws from then selling to children? Drug dealers and gangs are already comfortable with carrying out illegal activity in face of profits, what would stop them from spreading their risk onto children?
However, if drugs (and marijuana in particular) are regulated similarly to how alcohol and tobacco are now, then they will begin to be sold in legitimate stores with safe and sensible regulations including not selling to those under a certain age. The people working these stores already have a safe and legal job – why would they dare risk it by attempting to sell to a minor?
This is the same way stores that sell alcohol and tobacco operate. Sure, children and teens will always find ways of cheating the system, but it is much more difficult when the drugs are being sold from those with clean hands and a clean record then when the hands are already covered in filth and continuous illegal behavior.
And just like that we can take a step forward in protecting our children from health hazards, decreasing the amount of criminal and violent activity in communities, providing legitimate jobs for those that didn’t already have them, and spending less money down the black hole known as the “War on Drugs.”
What could be better? And what a marvelous solution – once again man’s freedom proves to be the best ideal for the growth of a prosperous and peaceful society… far surpassing what the corrupted minds of politicians could ever dream up. The empirical evidence is there for anyone willing to see truth, and I firmly believe that within the next decade – if there is but one issue the American public’s opinion will shift – it is that prohibition and the War on Drugs has been nothing but a complete atrocity to our society, causing an incalculable amount of injustices, including a violation of our inalienable right to own our natural bodies. Prohibition needs to be done away with for good!