Ending the War on Drugs

As the value of the War on Drugs is being re-evaluated, it makes sense to finally tell the truth on this matter. And the truth on this matter is: Most problems associated with drugs are not due to drugs, but rather to drugs being illegal. With the substances being made criminal, their trade is under control of illegal groups such as gangs and cartels; which do things the way that illegal enterprises do things - with corruption and brutality.

When alcohol was against the law in America, the Italian Mafia was at its greatest power. That is because they were able to supply a substance that was being consumed but which was illegal. The brutal gangs and cartels only exist because drugs are against the law. If the drugs weren't against the law, these entities would have nothing to do any more and would simply fade away.

I write this as someone who is not, nor was ever, a drug addict. I also write this as someone who's read the Constitution and knows that it is not up to the government to control what people put into their bodies. The unconstitutional prohibitions on substances have given birth to two parasitical infrastructures: Gangs and cartels to supply the drugs; and people hired by the government to imprison and keep in jail people for doing drugs. Do away with this unconstitutional prohibition, and there will no longer be room for either.

Like alcohol, drugs should be legal and under control of legal enterprises that do things in ways that legal enterprises do things. That will do away with the vast bulk of drug-related violence and crime; it will also keep people from winding up behind bars, at taxpayer expense, for choices that government has no business outlawing. The result will be vast benefit both to the taxpayer and to the community.

It is time to end the illegal, unconstitutional, expensive, destructive and murderous War on Drugs.