The War on Drugs

In order to ban alchohol, the U.S. Government first had to pass a Constitutional amendment. That amendment was later repealed, ending alchohol prohibition.

What has changed? Where did the federal government get the power to ban drugs?

Well, the dirty secret is that they don't have that power under the constitution.

Just like alchohol prohibition led to gangs, police corruption, intrusive law enforcement, street violence, drive by shootings, and a general disrespect for law, drug prohibition has accomplished the same things.

And it gets worse. The drug czar is buying ads telling us that anyone who buys drugs is helping to fund terrorists. What he doesn't mention is that the reason drug sales are lucrative enough to fund terrorism is because of drug laws. It is the fact that marijuana and opium are illegal that makes the drug dealers able to mark them up 17,000%. These are indiginous weeds. You can grow them anywhere in Oregon. In fact, you can grow them pretty much anywhere in the world. Certainly, you can grow them in all fifty states. Yet, because of drug laws, they are so profitable that they can be grown in a remote area of another continent, smuggled across multiple national borders through expensive means and bribery, and still have high enough profit margins to fund armies.

I read a few years ago that Charles Manson was in a prison hospital for detoxification. He had developed a heroin addiction. Charles Manson must be one of the 500 most heavily secured human beings in the country. Tell me: if the government cannot keep heroin out of its maximum security prisons, how will it ever manage to keep them out of a free country?

The answer is that it can't. To a scary extent, they have tried to limit freedom to fight the drug war. There's even a phrase in legal circles: the drug exceptions to the Bill of Rights. This stupidity must end.

I would fight to end the drug war immediately. If your neighbor does something to harm you or to place you in danger, then it is time for you to avail yourself of the use of police force to stop them. If all they do is smoke a weed which people have been smoking for thousands of years, then you are just going to have to put up with it.

Over 700,000 people were arrested for posession last year. Over 2 million people are in prison in this country, half of them for possession. That's a higher percentage of the population than South Africa imprisoned at the height of apartheid. China has a lower incarceration rate.

We are at the point where we have to decide whether we want to be a nation of free individuals or if we want to continue a drug war which is doomed to failure.

I choose a free country. Either of my opponents will give you the other choice. On this, as with most other issues, there is no difference between the Republican and the Democrat.