For the record, I’ve never taken illicit drugs of any kind.  I’ve never tried marijuana, let alone stronger drugs. They’ve never had any appeal to me, and I learned at an early age what these drugs can do to a human body.  No thanks.  I’ll pass.

Like most libertarian-minded people, I support decriminalization of drugs.  Yes, there’s that libertarian part of me that knows having the government intrude into your life to such an extent that anything you put into your body can be dictated by the politicians irks me to no end.  But there’s more to it than that for me.

The “war on drugs” has been an abject failure – much like anything else the government undertakes that shouldn’t be within its purview.

In more than 40 years, here’s what the American taxpayers spent on the drug war:

— $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion,while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico — and the violence along with it.

— $33 billion in marketing “Just Say No”-style messages to America’s youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have”risen steadily” since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.

— $49 billion for law enforcement along America’s borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.

— $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.

— $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.

I’m also less than thrilled with the “coddle the drug user” policy the current administration has announced, intending treat addiction as a public health issue, rather than a choice that has consequences.  First, I have no sympathy for these people.  They made their choices with the full knowledge of what drugs can do to them.  Nowadays, you really have to be living under a rock not to know the effects.  You make the choice, you live with it, or you take positive steps to make changes.  I have no sympathy, and I certainly don’t want my tax dollars being wasted on yet more useless programs.

I’m sick and tired of the “addiction is a disease” mantra.  People who make the choice to start using an addictive substance cannot be compared to those who contract cancer, diabetes or any other deadly disease through no fault of their own! I find the comparison incredibly offensive. There’s absolutely no justification for comparing someone snorting a line of coke back stage to someone who develops cancer.  Addiction is not a disease – for the most part, it’s a choice (making allowances for people with severe pain management issues), and I’m tired of coddling those who make that choice.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s time to cut them loose.  Give people the education and facts they need about drugs, and let them make their own choices, allowing them to live with the consequences.  The consequences include not being able to get a job if you test positive, and maximum prison times if your drug use is responsible for harm to any other human being.

Stay at home, do your lines of coke, smoke your dope and shoot up your heroin.  Go outside, drive a car, neglect or abuse others, and wind up in jail.

The drug war has obviously done nothing to curb drug use in the United States – mostly because it ignores basic economic and psychological principles.  Decriminalization, however, has led to a bit more sanity in Portugal, for instance.

…data indicate that decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, which, in numerous categories,are now among the lowest in the EU, particularly when compared with states with stringent criminalization regimes. Although post decriminalization usage rates have remained roughly the same or even decreased slightly when compared with other EU states, drug-related pathologies — such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage — have decreased dramatically. Drug policy experts attribute those positive trends to the enhanced ability of the Portuguese government to offer treatment programs to its citizens — enhancements made possible, for numerous reasons, by decriminalization.

Again, I’m not thrilled by the use of tax dollars to treat people for their bad choices.  But the lack of the billions spent on a drug war certainly makes government treatment a little more palatable, although, given the fact that Portugal has one of the highest deficit levels in Europe, such programs are irresponsible.

Nonetheless…

Legalizing and controlling drugs will certainly make it a lot less profitable for drug dealers to peddle their wares.  After all, the demand hasn’t changed, so the suppliers just keep raking in the cash.  After all, they’re taking that risk and expending all that effort to provide the supply… the greater the risk, the greater the profit. 

But leave it to our government to continue tossing cash at a program that has been ineffective, despite the billions being thrown at it for the past four decades!  After all, that’s the very definition of insanity!

h/t: The Chef