Drugs

Drug Policy

There is an inconsistency about today's drug policy.

The whole premise is to dissuade people from doing something potentially dangerous (drugs), by threatening them with something even more harmful (jail).

There is something sad about the "War on Drugs".

It is a civil war: Americans against fellow Americans.

Morals

Morally, it makes little sense to lock up drug users. Wasn't the whole idea of drug enforcement to protect citizens from harm?

I am a somewhat unique individual. I am one of those few people who can truthfully say he never even smoked a joint (OK, I did have two or three puffs, once, during a Spring Break in Mexico; it tasted like paper).

Either way, the whole drug debate seems rather pointless to me.

It is my belief that drugs can be harmful to one's health, and that they can indeed be very addictive as well. I certainly do not advocate the use of drugs.

But nobody has ever forced me to take drugs.

Since I don't do drugs, I feel reasonably confident that I can also convince my kids not to do drugs. There are plenty of good, clear, logical reasons not to do drugs. Doing drugs make no sense. It is not good for you. There are plenty of more exciting and more productive occupations than doing drugs. There are plenty of rational arguments I can use to convince my kids not to do drugs.

Actually, drug laws scare me. They seem to have escalated beyond control. I am worried about what drug laws are doing to the ideals of a free and democratic society. Drug laws seem to be contradicting the very essence of the American democratic system.

Drug laws have created what sometimes seems like a huge faceless bureaucracy, which always brings with it the element of fear. Even for people like myself, who have absolutely nothing at all to do with drugs.

I can easily accept the idea of fining someone $50 for smoking pot. But when we start throwing teenagers in jail for extended periods of time, when we start disregarding due process, doing random searches, seizing assets without trial, when we start using the military and secret services to "protect" people from themselves, I am concerned that we may be crossing a dangerous line in terms of civility, compassion and decency.

It almost seems like today, parents have to be more worried about their kids running into the police, than about their kids doing drugs in the first place.

The War on Drugs keeps escalating.

As a country, we spend a gigantic amount of money on drug enforcement.

It has been estimated that the number is about $50 billion a year. That probably only includes what the "government" (federal, state, local...) spends on things like the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), prisons (around half a million people are in jail on drug charges), law enforcement, courts, Border Guard, Customs...

The real cost to society is actually much higher when you include the (harder to estimate) costs of litigation (criminal defense fees), loss of productivity and increased bureaucracy.

People who are in jail do not only cost society money, they are effectively unproductive. Society loses twice.

I would guess that the real cost of drug enforcement is closer to $100 billion a year.

I don't have a good estimate yet of how much money is spent by drug users, actually buying drugs. So let's guess. If just under half the population, say 100, 000, 000, were to do drugs and spend an average of $1, 000 a year to support their habit (hopefully not optimistic assumptions), that would amount to about $100 billion.

It is not clear to me that that money achieves results we should reasonably be expecting from such an investment. Few clear cost / benefit analyses are available to the public. And the ones that are, are often either not very convincing, or downright skeptical.

As a matter of personal preference, I could certainly wish that my tax money were spent on things that could benefit me, or my family, more directly.

In terms of human lives improved or saved, it seems like there are some good candidate areas where more money could be spent instead. Of course, there is always the elimination of poverty, and education, but everybody knows that. These are "liberal" causes.

There is also the war on cancer, and on AIDS. Both afflictions kill a very large number of Americans, under very tragic circumstances.

Don't shoot the messenger; I didn't write it...

George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, has recently made significant waves by suggesting more liberal drug laws, and offering money to groups who favor legalization of certain kinds of drugs. Here is his reasoning, as proclaimed in a Washington Post article:

Stay Tuned