Category: citizen

Has the “drug war” been a success and should we continue it? You decide…

The pernicious, hidden effects of drug criminalisation:

• erodes the privacy boundary, thence respect for public space 
• criminalises pursuit of fun and millions of otherwise law abiding citizens, eroding respect for the law
• excuses the creation of a police state, wire tapping (87% of 2012 wire taps in USA) and racial profiling
• criminalises poverty and misery
• feeds the industrial prison business 
• promotes moralism as if it were a virtue
• draws arbitrary distinctions between substances that harms the reputation of the law

The obvious effects:

• increases criminal opportunity for theft, violence and smuggling 
• sends money to criminal gangs, enabling other more serious crimes
• reduces access to rehabilitation and education
• increases corruption
• destabilises producing countries
• lost government revenues 
• increases danger due to lack of quality controls
• enables the introduction of untested, dangerous new substances

And that’s before even mentioning:

• wastes police and prison resources
• crowds the judicial system with non-violent, otherwise civil citizens
• no correlation between amount of resources spent on the ‘drug war’ and the rate of drug use