When we look back over American history our history we can see multiple examples of great injustices. Now reasonable people agree that what our country did to Native Americans was a great injustice. Reasonable people agree that slavery and segregation was horrific. Imprisoning American citizens of Japanese decent during World War II was unacceptable behavior on our countries part. While we can all agree about these injustices now, during the time they were being committed these injustices had popular support.
It seems incomprehensible to most modern citizens that the leaders of our country condoned the buying and selling of human beings. That people were property and the families could be torn apart at the whim of their 'master'. How could our country steal land from people that had occupied it for thousands of years. How could our country break treaty after treaty that we promised to keep? How could our country kill innocent women and children by providing them with diseased blankets? What were our leaders thinking when they decided to imprison American citizens of Japanese decent? There are other examples as well such as women's suffrage and segregation. Seeing these great injustices one has to ask the question; do we learn from our history?
Only time will tell, but 50 years from now are the American citizens of 2060 going to look back at our society and ask "How could they imprison people because they had an addiction?'" Supporters of "The War on Drugs" often claim that "The War on Drugs" is an issue of morality. I would say like many of our countries great injustices of the past, it is an issue of immorality. Where is the morality in imprisoning someone because they have an addiction? What is moral about taking away a child's mother or father because that person is addicted to drugs? What is moral about spending tens of millions on prisons that would be better spent on treatment and education. What is moral about spending my tax dollars locking up an addict instead of spending that money educating our children or fixing our roads and bridges.
Not only is "The War on Drugs" immoral it is ill-conceived and destined to fail. How many causalities will this war produce before we wake up an realize it? Those in charge of the "War on Drugs" have placed the horse behind the cart. Instead of focusing on treatment to help those addicted to drugs stop abusing them and education to help prevent new users; they have instead decided to focus the country's efforts on reducing the supply. That is a losing proposition. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the law of supply and demand. For example, if police officers arrest the biggest drug dealer in a particular town what have they really done? The reduced the supply of drugs temporarily. What affect will that have on the local drug market? It will drive up the price. Because most users of illegal drugs are addicted and they cannot stop using without help, so they will pay whatever they have to to get the drugs. It is the "whatever they have to" part that drives a lot of crime.
Reducing the supply without reducing the demand also has another unintended consequence, it creates a greater incentive for others to become involved in selling drugs. Why? Higher prices equal greater profit. So our country has an endless supply of drug dealers. Where does that supply come from? It is our youth that we are not educating. It is the children that have had little guidance because we imprisoned their parents. It is children that grow up expecting to go to prison because that is what their parents, their brothers and sisters, their aunts and uncles, their grand parents did. To many people using and selling drugs being arrested and going to jail and prison is a family tradition.
To effectively address the problem with drugs we have to address the demand not the supply. Without the demand the market will die. If you don't believe that look at the buggy whip industry. We have to refocus our efforts and focus on treatment and not incarceration. We have to focus on education.
Since 1996 thirteen states have passed laws allowing medical marijuana. This is a start. Several countries in Europe have either legalized drugs or decriminalized drugs. Most people that die as a result of drugs die as a result of drug related violence. People who actually die yearly directly from illicit drug user is approximately 17,000. People who die yearly from adverse reactions from prescription drugs is approximately 32,000. If drugs were legalized and sold through licenced distributors drug related violence would drastically drop, the prices of drugs would drop which would decrease property crime related to the purchase of drugs, the prison population could be greatly reduced, we could spend the prison savings on drug treatment and education, not to mention the increased revenue from taxes.
"The Drug War" is a failure, it is time to admit it.
It seems incomprehensible to most modern citizens that the leaders of our country condoned the buying and selling of human beings. That people were property and the families could be torn apart at the whim of their 'master'. How could our country steal land from people that had occupied it for thousands of years. How could our country break treaty after treaty that we promised to keep? How could our country kill innocent women and children by providing them with diseased blankets? What were our leaders thinking when they decided to imprison American citizens of Japanese decent? There are other examples as well such as women's suffrage and segregation. Seeing these great injustices one has to ask the question; do we learn from our history?
Only time will tell, but 50 years from now are the American citizens of 2060 going to look back at our society and ask "How could they imprison people because they had an addiction?'" Supporters of "The War on Drugs" often claim that "The War on Drugs" is an issue of morality. I would say like many of our countries great injustices of the past, it is an issue of immorality. Where is the morality in imprisoning someone because they have an addiction? What is moral about taking away a child's mother or father because that person is addicted to drugs? What is moral about spending tens of millions on prisons that would be better spent on treatment and education. What is moral about spending my tax dollars locking up an addict instead of spending that money educating our children or fixing our roads and bridges.
Not only is "The War on Drugs" immoral it is ill-conceived and destined to fail. How many causalities will this war produce before we wake up an realize it? Those in charge of the "War on Drugs" have placed the horse behind the cart. Instead of focusing on treatment to help those addicted to drugs stop abusing them and education to help prevent new users; they have instead decided to focus the country's efforts on reducing the supply. That is a losing proposition. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the law of supply and demand. For example, if police officers arrest the biggest drug dealer in a particular town what have they really done? The reduced the supply of drugs temporarily. What affect will that have on the local drug market? It will drive up the price. Because most users of illegal drugs are addicted and they cannot stop using without help, so they will pay whatever they have to to get the drugs. It is the "whatever they have to" part that drives a lot of crime.
Reducing the supply without reducing the demand also has another unintended consequence, it creates a greater incentive for others to become involved in selling drugs. Why? Higher prices equal greater profit. So our country has an endless supply of drug dealers. Where does that supply come from? It is our youth that we are not educating. It is the children that have had little guidance because we imprisoned their parents. It is children that grow up expecting to go to prison because that is what their parents, their brothers and sisters, their aunts and uncles, their grand parents did. To many people using and selling drugs being arrested and going to jail and prison is a family tradition.
To effectively address the problem with drugs we have to address the demand not the supply. Without the demand the market will die. If you don't believe that look at the buggy whip industry. We have to refocus our efforts and focus on treatment and not incarceration. We have to focus on education.
Since 1996 thirteen states have passed laws allowing medical marijuana. This is a start. Several countries in Europe have either legalized drugs or decriminalized drugs. Most people that die as a result of drugs die as a result of drug related violence. People who actually die yearly directly from illicit drug user is approximately 17,000. People who die yearly from adverse reactions from prescription drugs is approximately 32,000. If drugs were legalized and sold through licenced distributors drug related violence would drastically drop, the prices of drugs would drop which would decrease property crime related to the purchase of drugs, the prison population could be greatly reduced, we could spend the prison savings on drug treatment and education, not to mention the increased revenue from taxes.
"The Drug War" is a failure, it is time to admit it.
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