End Prohibition Part II

I'm a couple of days late (16 to be exact) but 75 years ago on Dec. 5 1933, prohibition of alcohol ended in the United States. Yet, without understanding history, we have repeated our same mistake and created prohibition part II aka the war on drugs. Here is an excellent article discussing the burdens, costs and failed promises of the war on drugs.

Preview:

When repeal came, it was not just with the support of those with a taste for alcohol, but also those who disliked and even hated it but could no longer ignore the dreadful consequences of a failed prohibition. They saw what most Americans still fail to see today: That a failed drug prohibition can cause greater harm than the drug it was intended to banish. Consider the consequences of drug prohibition today: 500,000 people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions of taxpayer dollars expended annually to fund a drug war that 76% of Americans say has failed; millions now marked for life as former drug felons; many thousands dying each year from drug overdoses that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves, and tens of
thousands more needlessly infected with AIDS and Hepatitis C because those same
policies undermine and block responsible public-health policies.

This isn't about morals or simply wanting to get stoned (I don't even do drugs). It's about failed policy and its burdens on our economy and liberty.

Picking Apart the Myth

It is common to hear that marijuana should be illegal because it is a "gateway drug." Essentially, this means that if one smokes marijuana, the marijuana itself somehow leads that individual to trying more serious and harmful drugs such as cocaine. However, there is a major fault in this argument. Jacob Sullum points out, "people who enjoy the effects of marijuana are logically, more likely to try other mood-altering drugs than those who are unwilling to try marijuana. In other words, many of the factors associated with a willingness to try marijuana are, presumably, the same as those associated with a willingness to try other drugs."

In Sullum's article, No Bad Drugs he lists the various arguments against drugs, but then rationally picks them apart. As expected, most arguments for making drugs illegal are fueled by emotion. Unsurprisingly, these types of arguments do not stand up to rational thought or scientific findings.