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Take the world's smallest political quiz and see where you fit!Modern Prohibition
In 1914, a federal study showed that 1.3% of the population suffered from drug addiction problems, leading to America’s first drug laws. When Nixon launched the “War on Drugs” in 1970, another government study showed that 1.3% of the population was addicted to drugs. Since then, more than $1 trillion has been spent and nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners are in American jails. After all of this effort and expense, and nearly 100 years since the first drug laws were passed, 1.3% of the population is still addicted to illicit drugs. Bluntly put, our drug policies have failed.
It has been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different result. Yet while we cannot keep drugs out of our prisons, we continue to believe that we can keep them off of the streets. Further, there is a strong correlation between violent crime and drug law enforcement, as “suppliers” are forced to settle their disputes with guns rather than with lawyers. According to a study by Jeffrey A. Miron, a Harvard based economist, ending the War on Drugs would reduce the homicide rate in the United States by as much as 75%.
Modern Prohibition has led to nothing but black markets, endemic inner city violence, and enormous financial burdens on taxpayers. These very same problems arose during the Prohibition of alcohol, and few people today feel that it was a mistake to end that futile experiment.
It is time to end our second failed Prohibition experiment. It is not working, it hurts innocent people, and we simply cannot afford it. It is time to focus on prevention and rehabilitation rather than on prosecution and incarceration. It is time to take the enormous profits, created in any black market, out of the industry and to put the gangs out of business. It is time to keep dangerous substances out of the hands of our youth by employing tools which are already in place for alcohol and tobacco and which work, rather than by relying on wild hopes and empty promises.
This is not an endorsement of drug use – it is an endorsement of common sense. We either own our own bodies, or we do not. We need to restore self-ownership to the citizens of Illinois, and enforce the personal responsibilities that go with it.
