Issue Position: Drugs

Issue Position

There are four reasons why we should legalize drugs. First: it will take the sale of drugs off the streets and out of our schools where our children are most vulnerable. Second: America isn't serious about drug control. Third: It will terminate the drug war and much of the criminal activity associated with it. Fourth: In a free society prohibition of drugs never works.

It would seem obvious that when drugs are sold by unscrupulous characters in the neighborhood or at school, that our children are at greater risk than when drugs are sold over the counter where proof of age is required, or where you have to make arrangements with an adult to buy it for you. When drugs are legal, and you don't use drugs, the probability is much greater that your children will also abstain. If your friends, the ones that you and your children associate with, don't use drugs the chances are even greater that your children will abstain.

On a personal level, If you use any drug (and alcohol is Americas number one drug problem), you can not say that you are serious about drug control. To be able to use the drug of your choice but to disallow others to use the drug of their choice is not only hypocritical, but also says that one is not serious about drug control. Only those who use no drugs and teach their children, as well as others, that drugs are harmful and should not be used, can make the claim that they are serious about drug control.

Can a nation that spends billions of dollars on advertising that portrays alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, as cool, sexy, suave or everyone is dong it, claim that it is serious about drug control?

When a government prohibits the sales or manufacturer of a good or service it has two means of enforcing the prohibition. The government can try to stop the demand for the prohibited item, but to do so they must control the people themselves. This requires a police state. The more effective the police state the better the control. However, no police state has ever been able to eradicate demand for an item for very long. In a society that is free the people will never tolerate a police state and it becomes impossible for the government to control the prohibited item. The second way the government can controll the prohibited item is by controlling the supply. By going after the producers and distributors of the item they believe that they can control the sale of that item.

Back in the late 1960's when I was in high school, the drugs of choice were LSD and marijuana and the government tried hard to prevent their use. I did not know anyone who sold them but I knew that you could get them if you wanted them. When I was in high school I had never heard of cocaine. I only knew of heroin because my stepfather had seen it used while a sailor in the Navy and told me about it. Today we have not just LSD and marijuana, but a plethora of drugs that can be bought quite easily. I honestly believe that if you were to ask any individual over the age of 30 if drugs were easier to obtain today than they were when they were in high school, I think the answer would be yes. During the prohibition days when the sale of alcohol was illegal, the government never was able to control the manufacture and sale of alcohol. There were bootleggers everywhere and alcohol was easy to get. The prohibition of drugs did not work then it did not work when I was in high school it does no t work today nor has it worked any time in between. And it will not work in the future. Drug control never has worked, does not work today, nor will it work in the future.

In a free society there is such a thing as the free market. The free market is an eternal principle. It never goes away nor can it be replaced. In a free market all goods and services are sold where price is determined by supply, demand and risk. When a government tries to prohibit the sale of an item, that item moves underground. The underground is usually referred to as the black market. The black market is a free market where price is determined by supply, demand and risk. As long as there is demand there will be a supply. There will always be individuals who will take the risks necessary to supply the item. And the price of that item will generate enough profit to compensate for the risk. The black market is illegal as it operates outside the bounds of the law. Because the black market operates outside the bounds of the law, those best suited to deal with the trade are those who already have experience working outside the bounds of the law. That translates to terrorists, thugs and mafia. By le galizing drugs we will take the market and the profits associated with it out of the hands of these individuals. When prohibition was repealed the Al Capones and Dillengers disappeared. Many of the small bootleggers persisted in an effort to fight taxes that were placed on alcohol but eventually even they gave up the practice because it just wasn't worth it. If we were to take away the profits of the gangs, thugs, terrorists and drug cartels it would spell their doom.

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