Issue Position: Defund Violence

Issue Position

When we end the War on Drugs, we erase black market profits overnight. Without black market profits, drugs cartels and dangerous criminals go out of business. (There is no cartel surrounding Sam Adams beer because no one would pay black market prices for a legal good.)

When the cartels can't turn a profit, they can't afford bullets, and they can't afford recruits. So your streets are safer. You don't have to worry about you or your family getting shot. Legal drug businesses will settle their disagreements using mediation instead of violence. And you don't have to worry about your children getting coerced into these dangerous organizations.

You also know that now if you choose to use drugs, you will have a significantly reduced risk of overdose or poisoning from additives because the market will create high quality, consistent products that drug dealers looking to turn a profit can't match.

And if you want to stop doing drugs, you no longer have to fear the law. You can get the help you need from medical professionals. Industries will open up to help people with addiction, including patches and pills (like we have for cigarettes) and help groups (like those that exist for alcoholics).

When we end the War on Drugs, families are no longer torn apart. We no longer imprison people for victimless drug crimes. Fathers and mothers can stay with their children, continue working, and provide for their families. Poverty rates decline and family bonds help children stay in school and out of trouble.

And when we incarcerate fewer people, we further hurt the cartels. Cartels need to get workers from somewhere, and often they recruit out of prisons. With fewer people in prison, cartels can't get their work done. And with fewer people in prison, police officers can focus on crimes that matter like backlogged rape kits, theft, and murder cases.

And what if you don't live near these cartels?

You still benefit. When we end the War on Drugs we cut taxes by over $80 billion and that money goes back into your wallet. You can use that money to support local businesses or charities, buy a new computer, go on vacation, send your kid to a better school, or anything else you want to do.

I want a world in which the racist and classist impacts of the drug war are stopped. I want to give minorities and low income families the opportunity to flourish, not sit in jail. And I want to stop the government from stealing your money and using it to hurt people.

I want to make American lives better. And so, if elected, I will sponsor legislation to end the War on Drugs permanently and completely, and to return all that tax money to you.

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