No, I'm not saying that we should pull out of Iraq. But I am in favor of ending The War on Drugs. How many billions must be spent - without result - before we admit that the war cannot be won? Despite years of attempting to interdict drugs, find drug users, imprisonment, split families ... the drug use goes on.
Am I in favor of use of those drugs that are currently illegal? No. But the status of their legality is the issue, not whether they are wise substances to ingest. George Melloan, of the Wall Street Journal, explains the subject very well.
In 1933, the U.S. finally gave up on the 13-year prohibition of alcohol--a drug that is by some measures more intoxicating and dangerous to health than marijuana. That effort to alter human behavior left a legacy of corruption, criminality, and deaths and blindness from the drinking of bad booze. America's use of alcohol went up after repeal but no serious person today suggests a repeat of the alcohol experiment. Yet prohibition is still being attempted, at great expense, for the small portion of the population--perhaps little more than 5%--who habitually use proscribed drugs.
Mind-altering drugs do of course cause problems. Their use contributes to crime, automobile accidents, work-force dropouts and family breakups. But the most common contributor to these social problems is not the illegal substances. It is alcohol. Society copes by punishing drunken misbehavior, offering rehabilitation programs and warning youths of the dangers. Most Americans drink moderately, however, creating no problems either for themselves or society.
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