Prohibition, It worked so well with alcohol, so it must work really well with drugs! That's right kids, alcohol was prohibited at one time in the United States. Specifically from 1920 until its repeal in 1933. Prohibition was a movement by not just one, but many of the evangelical religions of the time and the Anti- Saloon League. By pressuring legislators of the time, popularizing the notion that prohibition would reduce domestic violence and remove power from the German-based brewing industry, congress amended the constitution to establish a nation-wide ban on alcohol.
Crime did not go down, in fact criminal activity involving alcohol spiked. Bootleggers, rum-runners and the speakeasy became signs of the times. The organized crime outfits boomed. Not only did prohibition increase illegal activities, it also deprived the federal government of much needed tax revenue during the early part of the depression. Eventually ration did come back to congress, and in 1933 prohibition was repealed.
The war on drugs can be directly compared to alcohol prohibition. Has crime gone down? No. As a matter of fact the war on drugs has increased crime rates. The reason is simple, most people don't do drugs. Those who do, don't give a shit whether they are legal or not, they are gonna get high regardless. Whether they are involved in breaking laws to purchase drugs, or are simply breaking the law by using drugs, they are still breaking a law. If someone wants to sit in there home and get drunk, well that is just fine. If someone wants to sit in there home and get high, arrest them and charge them with a felony. A felony that in many states requires serving time in prison. Now, this minor offense has sent someone to an overcrowded prison where there is a good chance they will be forced to become a real criminal.
Looking at the broader picture, the war on drugs has created cartels that have made hundreds of billions of dollars off American drug consumption. You may or may not like it, but we are exporting huge sums of cash to foreign drug cartels. This is not just a money issue, the cartels are violent organizations that will go to extraordinary lengths do get drugs into the country and cash out. You get in the way, you are either bought off or disappeared. If you take away the profit motive of transport, sale, and consumption, the cash flow dwindles, and as any good economist will tell you, if you can't make money on something, it's not worth doing.
So, prohibition is obviously not the solution to the problem, people are going to get high and get drunk if they want to. Should the government just open the flood gates and make all drugs legal, crack at 7-Eleven, meth at Dunkin-Donuts. Only the finest Columbian cocaine at the country club. No. Decriminalize possession of small amounts of drugs. If someone gets caught walking down the road with a crack pipe, don't simply arrest them and charge them with a felony offense for possession. Obviously, if someone is caught breaking into a car, and the arresting officer finds a crack pipe upon frisking this person, it will be tacked on to the felony they are committing by breaking into the car.
As most of us know, this world has some really bad people inhabiting it. We would be far better off as a society if we were not burdening our law enforcement agencies with petty crimes. Let them focus there resources on the real bad guys.
Sitting on your curb, smoking crack, is looked upon as pitiful. You become the neighborhood Peria, the crack-head. At that point you have two options, clean up your life and become a functional member of society, or be the home-less, aging, kinda crazy, crack-head the kids laugh at. We all grew up with someone in our neighborhood who would fit that description. It really does become sad to look at. On the flip side of that, most of us know someone that went pretty far down that rocky road of despair, and yet, they managed to turn their life around. Proud to be members of society once again. Sure, it sounds kinda bad that someone is turned into the guy on the steam vent, but some people don't want help when it is offered. Sad, but true.
Taking the profit motive out of the equation is crucial. This is where the problem gets tough to figure out. Should the government start buying drugs from the producers and selling them so that there is no trafficking? Should every drug be turned back into a marketable product? I don't know. Like I said, tough question to tackle. In my opinion, if you want to take the time and energy to grow a coca plant, refine it into powder cocaine, and then further refine it into crack-cocaine, in your basement, that's all you man. Just don't do it on a major scale, and then try and sell it to the neighborhood. Remember, most of us don't really like the idea of smoking crack. Sorry if I have offended any," basement coca growers".
The drawback of this thinking is that the cartels will still have a market for their product. However, by reducing the criminalization of small time offenders, more time and effort and can be given to eradicating the whole-sale producers of the product, thereby reducing violent activities associated with production, trafficking, and sale. If Escobar was just a small farmer, growing a plant that locals chewed for it's ability to give you a little jolt, he would be remembered as the Red Bull guy of Columbia. Take the profit out, and you squash the big guy.
At the end of the day, our government needs to realize the amount of money they are spending trying to eradicate drug use is just wasted. It is an idealistic challenge that can never be met. We are humans. We do not live in utopia. Some of us are going to seek an escape whether it is legal or not. Most of us are guilty of having a cocktail night! Do we really need to send "bong guy on a Tuesday" to Pelican Bay? Good Luck America!
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