Nothing new here, but a fairly decent summary of the events of the war on drugs.
I have always believed that the effort to combat drugs was mis-focused from the outset. It is next to impossible to prevent a product from reaching the customer if there is a thriving market for that product -- only the price is affected. John Hancock made his fortune on that fact and, despite the Continental System imposed by Napoleon and British laws against importing Napoleon's products, the British consumption of French wine and Brandy did not really decrease all that much between 1796 and 1815.....
Efforts that do not place primary effort on eradicating that market are doomed to failure. Any war on drugs had to attack the market -- the user -- to make the cost of use so exorbitent as to deter usage and thereby diminish the market. So, until either education or punishment diminish the market, the sale of these drugs will continue.
The re-focusing of police effort to minimize violent crime and to force illegal drug salespersons to keep quiet and avoid violence (in order to keep their costs down and profits up) is a rational response.
Legalizing it all -- however repugnant and howevermuch damage would occur to the first generation so exposed -- will eventually provide the broad knowledge of result that can self-correct the problem. A sad situation....
Bookmarks