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Drug policy

The so-called "War on Drugs" assaults Americans' civil liberties, and clogs our jails and courts.  This war on our own citizens paves the way for police corruption, like what occurred within the Los Angeles Police Department.   It has also been a tool for misguided law enforcement agencies to enrich themselves by illegally confiscating personal property.   

The "War on Drugs"  cost U.S. taxpayers some $3.2 billion during 12 years of Reagan and Bush.  Billions more were spent during Clinton's reign. 

Thanks to the war on drugs, the United States now has the highest per-capita incarceration rate of any nation on Earth.

But drug use has not gone down much, and the crimes associated with drug illegality continue unabated.  Americans want drugs of all kinds, and have the money to get them somehow.  As long as that is true, there will be people on all continents who will risk their lives to sell us our fix.

That $3.2 billion we pissed away could have bought a lot of re-hab.  The $1.3 billion we've earmarked to advise Columbia on the best way to battle both left- and right-wing drug-running paramilitaries could be better spent here at home, treating the root problem.

Unlike money thrown away on foreign military adventures, money spent on rehab continues to circulate in the community economy.  Rehab centers hire counselors, mentors and case workers, who now have money to spend on food, clothing and other necessities.  The whole community gets a lift.

Sustainable drug policy

Our model policy would have the following features.

  • Massive effort to get drug abusers of all kinds, including alcoholics, into rehab.
  • Increased drug education in schools, internet, broadcasting and other forums.
  • Legalize, standardize and tax cannabis for smoking.  This will generate the money necessary for re-hab program management and drug education.
  • Create incentives and markets for industrial hemp, which is useless as a drug but extremely useful for oil and fast-growing fiber.
  • Standardize and tax heroin, cocaine and other opiates, but tightly regulate their use. Doctors may license narcotics to recreational users, within detailed limits.  Use the money to fund rehab and education, and other programs as available.
  • Drug sales outside of legal channels remain a crime; sentences are reduced for small-time dealers and users.
  • Law enforcement focus more on making sure all taxes are paid, on licensing growers, and to control the legal narcotics trade.  Interdiction efforts focus on coasts, borders and airports, less on U.S. citizens.
  • Focus international efforts on helping farmers in drug-producing nations make a decent living growing food, instead of drugs.  When drugs become the only profitable crop, rural poverty increases and human and ecological health suffers.
  • Stop using United States taxpayer funds and foreign policy to fight overseas drug wars and pit governments in drug-producing areas against their people, neighboring countries, drug runners, and the international community. 

Good books on drug policy, from our friends at Amazon.com. If you go directly from here to Amazon, and buy the book, we get a small commission.  If you buy it some other time, we might not get paid.  The cost to you is the same.  So, if you are going to buy this book based on our recommendation, please bookmark this page.

Good drug policy links:

 

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