Let's End Drug Prohibition

Of all the news outlets in the world, the Wall Street Journal is not my first pick for one that would endorse making drugs legal. So imagine my shock when I saw this:

Consider the consequences of drug prohibition today: 500,000 people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions of taxpayer dollars expended annually to fund a drug war that 76% of Americans say has failed; millions now marked for life as former drug felons; many thousands dying each year from drug overdoses that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves, and tens of thousands more needlessly infected with AIDS and Hepatitis C because those same policies undermine and block responsible public-health policies.

And look abroad. At Afghanistan, where a third or more of the national economy is both beneficiary and victim of the failed global drug prohibition regime. At Mexico, which makes Chicago under Al Capone look like a day in the park. And elsewhere in Latin America, where prohibition-related crime, violence and corruption undermine civil authority and public safety, and mindless drug eradication campaigns wreak environmental havoc...

It's not because alcohol is any less dangerous than the drugs that are banned today. Marijuana, by comparison, is relatively harmless: little association with violent behavior, no chance of dying from an overdose, and not nearly as dangerous as alcohol if one misuses it or becomes addicted. Most of heroin's dangers are more a consequence of its prohibition than the drug's distinctive properties. That's why 70% of Swiss voters approved a referendum this past weekend endorsing the government's provision of pharmaceutical heroin to addicts who could not quit their addictions by other means. It is also why a growing number of other countries, including Canada, are doing likewise.

Yes, the speedy drugs -- cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit stimulants -- present more of a problem. But not to the extent that their prohibition is justifiable while alcohol's is not. The real difference is that alcohol is the devil we know, while these others are the devils we don't. Most Americans in 1933 could recall a time before prohibition, which tempered their fears. But few Americans now can recall the decades when the illicit drugs of today were sold and consumed legally. If they could, a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming.

Can anyone possibly refute these arguments? Maybe the worry is that if drugs are legal, more and more people will be addicted than ever. That's certainly a scare. But will it be more of a problem than it is today? Where thousands are murdered every year over drugs, thousands more die because of overdose, and thousands go to jail for non-violent offenses, costing each state and taxpayer more and more money?

At the very least, this country should make marijuana legal. As the article points out, it's almost complete harmless. More people, I'm sure, die each year because they eat McDonald's three times a week, than because of smoking marijuana. (Of course, I'm not sure if this is true, but it sounds good) And unlike McDonald's, marijuana has very real medical benefits for people with diseases.

And what about alcohol? I'm a social worker, so I've seen first hand many, many times how alcohol can destroy a family and a person's life. Marijuana? I realize this is anecdotal, but I'm never seen it ruin anyone's life. Sure, it may make some people apathetic if they smoke too often, but video games probably make people pretty apathetic too.

The arguments for keeping marijuana are just dumb and it should be legal. The rest of the drugs? Well, even though I'm in favor of legalizing all drugs, I realize that it's more complicated than marijuana because the harms are greater. Anyway,I urge you to watch Season 3 of "The Wire" and think about it. In that season, West Baltimore essentially legalizes drugs. The picture it paints is hardly a utopia; however, it shows many of the benefits that happen with drug legalization....