Let's Be Blunt: It's Time to End the Drug War

Let's Be Blunt: It's Time to End the Drug War [forbes.com]

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Prohibition is a textbook example of a policy with negative unintended consequences. Literally: it’s an example in the textbook I use in my introductory economics classes (Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles of Economics if you’re curious) and in the most popular introductory economics textbook in the world (by N. Gregory Mankiw).The demand curve for drugs is extremely inelastic, meaning that people don’t change their drug consumption very much in response to changes in prices. Therefore, vigorous enforcement means higher prices and higher revenues for drug dealers. In fact, I’ll defer to Cowen and Tabarrok—page 60 of the first edition, if you’re still curious—for a discussion of the basic economic logic:

The more effective prohibition is at raising costs, the greater are drug industry revenues. So, more effective prohibition means that drug sellers have more money to buy guns, pay bribes, fund the dealers, and even research and develop new technologies in drug delivery (like crack cocaine). It’s hard to beat an enemy that gets stronger the more you strike against him or her.

People associate the drug trade with crime and violence; indeed, the newspapers occasionally feature stories about drug kingpins doing horrifying things to underlings and competitors. These aren’t caused by the drugs themselves but from the fact that they are illegal (which means the market is underground) and addictive (which means demanders aren’t very price sensitive).

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Albert Einstein is reported to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By this definition, the drug war is insane. We are no safer, and we are certainly less free because of concerted efforts to wage war on drugs. It’s time to stop the insanity and end prohibition.

*emphasis mine*


It's time. It's failing and we can't afford it.

Just take a look at Portugal (article is from 7/2011): Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal [forbes.com]

add a poll to this floyd!


and totally agree, people like to get intoxicated. Keeping it criminal has made us into a prison society...and since prisons are privatized, they profit from and lobby for keeping drugs illegal.

Quote from joer316 : add a poll to this floyd!

Good suggestion. Added.

Will never happen until lobbying is abolished. Too much money is being made from keeping the prison beds full and their are too many politicians on the take.

No such thing. It's a war on freedom; your freedom. The drug trade is a business. End the drug business? Pharma included? Good luck; there's too many addicts.

The goverment has no right to tell me what I can put in my body.

In a time when the public is moving forward on making it easier to not have to inhale someone's second hand tobacco smoke... why would we take steps backwards and open ourselves up to pot? You're taking all the cigarette damage and adding some extra brain damage to the mix.

Come on people... it's time to evolve already.

Pot Legalization Could Save U.S. $13.7 Billion Per Year, 300 Economists Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/201...31840.html

HAPPY 420 everyone!

Quote from psiveteran : In a time when the public is moving forward on making it easier to not have to inhale someone's second hand tobacco smoke... why would we take steps backwards and open ourselves up to pot?

Because decriminalization means that everyone will just be constantly blowing it in your face? C'mon.... Smoking, either tobacco or cannabis, would still be prohibited in all the same places it is now, if not more. I think it would be more, which is fine.

Quote from psiveteran : You're taking all the cigarette damage and adding some extra brain damage to the mix.

Cite this please.

Quote from psiveteran : Come on people... it's time to evolve already.

You're right. We should be evolving in a free nation. Free from being told what we can and cannot put into our bodies.

One of the more interesting suggestions I've heard by some anti-prohibition advocates was that the drug war incentivizes the creation of stronger and much more potent drugs.

And if you think of the newer drugs, like crack cocaine or crystal meth, you can see what they are talking about.

The other example they gave, in everyday life, prohibition affects people going into sporting events. A person who was tailgating and then goes into a football game is less likely to bring in 2-3 beers than they are to bring in a flask of hard liquor.

Moral of the story, prohibition encourages the use of more potent (and more dangerous) substances.

Quote from OhNoItsDEVO : The goverment has no right to tell me what I can put in my body.

I'm sorry, terrorist, you just cannot be trusted right now. Thanks, though. Buh bye.

The time now is 4:20 pm.
Damn being stuck in this office...

Quote from joer316 : Pot Legalization Could Save U.S. $13.7 Billion Per Year, 300 Economists Say

15 trillion - 13.7 billion = 15 trillion

A literal drop in the ocean.