The War on Drugs, A War on Ourselves

Few people will argue taking a product out of the violent and shady depths of the black market is a bad thing. However, when the product in question is a drug, most people have a much different response. It’s hardly a secret that the biggest beneficiaries of drug prohibition have always been the drug dealers themselves. Any lessons learned from the epic failure of alcohol prohibition in the last century were apparently forgotten. We are all familiar with the notorious gangsters of the 1920’s such as Al Capone making millions from black market ventures. Today the situation is no different. Every time access to a drug is restricted, the gangs get more power and more money. All of a sudden, these restricted drugs are being sold underground (using more toxic ingredients) and many more people die from overdoses. When the drug dealers are taken off the street today, it merely opens up a new job opportunity for someone else. If a shipment of drugs is seized, the price of the other drugs goes up and the users will just turn to robbery to cover the extra expense. Removing arbitrary restrictions on substances will destroy these gangs and save countless lives. Fortunately, citizens in some states have woken up to this fact but are running into opposition from government. Why could this be? Aren’t those in government supposed to be on our side?

While most law enforcement workers genuinely care for the well-being of the citizenry, the departments they work for care most about funding. This is where the War on Drugs helps these departments. Bureaucracies naturally want to grow larger in staff and in responsibility. Officers working for the government are put in a position where they need to make more drug arrests to maintain funding for their ever-growing departments. After all, what city needs a bloated police department when there is a decrease in crime? The Drug War provides many convenient sources of alternate funding. Police departments can seize the property of anyone they claim to be involved in illicit activities even when no charges have been filed thanks to asset forfeiture laws. These assets can include homes, vehicles, loose cash, drugs, and valuable weapons. In other words, the police get nice cut of the action and don’t want to give that up.

Having a serious discussion about this issue with a politician is like discussing their extramarital affairs; politicians just won’t do it. In fact, an affair is much more accepted by the public than any admitted, past drug use. When politicians talk about the war on drugs, they speak of it in the same terms as the war on terror. This makes sense. Both wars were “declared” against non-human entities, and both were designed to increase support for unpopular presidential administrations. Both wars give excuses for undermining 4th amendment rights and corrupting the justice system. Also, both wars lack clearly defined goals or benchmarks for success. Therefore, it is imperative that the opponents of both wars take a stand together in the name of reason and of decency to question the motives of politicians and authorities.