War on Drugs: Legalize it?

Originally posted by: FairyLights_3

Greetings 😊

Found an interesting article on CNN today.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/16/world/americas/mexico-drug-war-strategy/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

The article states that Mexico and the United States have spent billions of dollar in security, and violence has caused the death of many.

I think that people who are doing drugs will do it any way, regardless of whether it is legal or illegal.

My question is: Should they just legalize it instead of spending ridiculous amounts of money to control it?

Personally, I'm a libertarian and don't think that government or society has the right to tell an individual what to do. However, I get where people against drugs come from. Since drug usage is detrimental to quality of life and society, most societies would go at any lengths to curtail drugs no matter what the cost.

Unfortunately, the war on drugs has been a long expensive war that has brought about absolutely zero results. Drug usage has not gone down, and drug violence and trafficking has increased.

The problem with the war is it focuses on the supply, that too inefficiently. It makes drugs trade illegal and cracks down on suppliers. Supply is tightened and restricted. In the meantime demand is constant or even rising. That means drugs can fetch a higher price. That makes drugs even more lucrative to traffickers. That means more gang wars and violence to control the available supply chains. The risk reward structure of drug supply keeps making it more and more lucrative for some people to engage in drug trade.

If we want to continue the war on drugs, we need to rethink our strategy and get smart about how we do it.

- You have to focus on demand as well. In order to make drug trade less lucrative and less desirable, the demand for drugs has to go down. I am not sure how that can be done in a pragmatic manner, but one option is to have severe criminal liabilities for drug consumption as well.

- Be practical, the amount of hype things like marijuana, salvia etc. get is ridiculous. I think it is time we legalized these and focused the efforts on the hard more dangerous stuff like heroin, crack etc.

- Focus on the source, not just the gangs. Many farmers and tribes in drug producing havens like Columbia are poor and impoverished. They are at a point where producing drugs on their land is the best use of their land. War on drugs cannot work unless we find a way to reach out to them and help them utilize their land in a better way and help them break the bondage to drug lords. The way it is today, drug lords are like gods to them and narcotics cops are evil people destroying their livelihood.

- Similarly we have to focus on quality of life in ghettos, trailer parks etc. As long as their quality of life is poor – they will continue to consume, make and peddle street drugs. If one ghetto drug gangbanger is arrested or killed by the cops, another one will take their place. Unless the ghettos and trailer parks are elevated to at least honest blue collar work forces, there is no way to combat suburban drug traffic. Its an endless cycle.

Originally posted by: TheUltimate

Un.Be.Lievable.

Do we really need to list out why drugs should not be legalized?? What is this? A kindergarten??

What are the supportive arguments?

Huge cost? Well, legalize the drugs and see how many junkies end up in ER.. and government have to take care of their medication. Can we legalize drugs with a fine print that junkies will not get any health benefit at tax payer's money? I am sure insurance companies will take care of themselves by dropping junkies away like hot potatoes.

Failure to control the problem? First of all, it's a lie/opinion/argument based on hypothetical and unavailable data. How can one claim there is a "failure" when they do not have a definition of "success"?? So, do we know that all those who want to get drugs today can get them at any time anywhere without any restrictions? Then and only then we can say that system has failed - in other words, it does not matter whether or not we have regulations.

People will do as they please?? Seriously? How so? I want to go over the speed limit and pass the police car every time I see it. Can I do it? No? What if I know I would not get a speeding ticket? Can I then do it?


Laws are made for a purpose. To maintain the stability of a normal society. Enforcing a law comes with cost. So?