Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Rethinking the drug war by John Stossel - Mar 29, 2006

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Rethinking the drug war by John Stossel - Mar 29, 2006:
"Government's declaring drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them. It just creates a black market, where even nastier things happen. That's why I have come to think that although drug addiction is bad, the drug war is worse."
Repeat this over and over until it sinks in ... drugs are easily obtainable today basically everywhere in the country -- so what benefits do we get from fighting the drug war? Why not legalize it, save the 40 BILLION dollars annually and spend that money educating the public and treating addicts? Heck we'd probably make tons of money in simply taxing the stuff. Again -- the drugs are already easily available! Making it legal wouldn't make them any more available than they already are.

2 comments:

Emily Curtis said...

I agree somewhat, but I also feel there's something to be said about not legalizing things that are abused and harmful to society despite how available they already are. If you're buying drugs, I say you deserve what the black market gives you!
The thing that erks me is that we're paying so much, and I agree with you that it doesn't seem to be correcting the problem.
My solution would be to legalize drugs on an isolated island somewhere and let all the drugies move there . . . or we could always keep reminding them how much easier it is to get drugs in Canada!

J. Willard Curtis said...

How about resurrecting a crazy idea called FEDERALISM, where each state in the union would have some power over what goes on in that state; thus 50 distinct laboratories could try and evaluate and learn the most effective way of dealing with the drug issue.
Alas, not to be thanks to our crazy supreme court ruling in Raich; which basically says that some guy growing a plant in his backyard for his own personal consumption is (drum roll please) INTERSTATE COMMERCE!