Ninety-nine years ago today, America, in an epic demonstration of naive, puritanical folly, went dry. It took 13 years to recognize that folly and undo Prohibition. In that time, the only “success” was found in the criminal underworld, where the enormous profit potential inspired the smart and entrepreneurial to organize. Hence, “organized crime,” a plague that has lasted through the decades.
Alcohol prohibition didn’t materialize out of nothing. The temperance movement was almost a century old by the time the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, and a number of states and localities had already instituted their own bans. The nationwide ban, and more specifically its spectacular failure, exposed the absurdity of attempting to prohibit behavior, and the dry movement has become more about campaigning against drunk driving and about helping those addicted to excess consumption.
The other great prohibition, against recreational drugs, mirrored alcohol prohibition in that it didn’t spring up in one momentary paroxysm of puritanical nannying. Anti-drug laws proliferated in the 1800s and early 1900s, driven, unfortunately, by bigotry (against Chinese and Mexicans, primarily) as much as anything else. The first major federal law was the Pure Food And Drug Act, which in theory was a good idea. It required accurate labeling of the plethora of “patent medicines,” not a bad idea in a day when the resources available today weren’t even conceived. But, more sinisterly, it empowered the federal government to deem certain substances “addictive” or “dangerous,” an enormous power for a crusading bureaucrat. More laws and government bureaucracies sprung forth through the next couple decades, and in 1937 the Federal government enacted the Marihuana Tax Act, a new tool for the prosecution of unsavories (a favorite target became “jazz musicians,” a code word for black people). This law was deemed unconstitutional in 1969, but was quickly supplanted by new legislation.
In June 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs and drastically expanded the federal bureaucracy to wage it. In short order, things like no-knock warrants and mandatory minimum sentencing became part of the legal landscape.
This War on Drugs has been waxing and waning for nearly half a century. It has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. It has been responsible for untold billions of dollars flowing into the underground economy and out of the country. Millions have had their career and life prospects permanently wrecked due to possession convictions. Our constitutional rights have been shredded. Privacy has become a joke. Our police departments have been militarized. Our prisons have become industries and profit centers. Foreign governments have been destabilized. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. In inner cities, poor communities and many foreign lands, the drug trade is a career path that crowds out most others.
Despite the enormous effort and the horrifying toll, it remains that anyone who wishes to can procure just about any drug he or she wishes, with very little effort and without much risk. And, those drugs are stronger and purer than ever.
Slowly, the puritanical tide that prompted this War has been turning, both in terms of popular opinion and in government. Twenty states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and another 8 have legalized it entirely. Nearly 2 in 3 Americans support pot legalization. Unfortunately, neither major political party is willing to step up and declare the obvious – that, at the very minimum regarding pot, prohibition should simply go away.
There is no chance – none – that this War on Drugs will be “won.” You can’t legislate behavior and you can’t change human nature. The War only does damage, it does not make things “better,” unless you’re among those who earns a living from it.
Better, by FAR, to devote resources to helping addicts overcome their addictions. Better, by FAR, to bring it up out of the underground, where people die because they have nothing but a criminal’s word for what it is they’re buying. Better, by FAR, to remove the incentives for people to go into criminal drug dealing as a career path. Even the current opioid epidemic that’s claiming tens of thousands of lives per year is exacerbated by the drug war, for reasons that include the basic “you don’t know what you’re buying when you buy on the black market.” This harkens back to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 111 years ago, which sought to protect people from liars and scammers. We should take a lesson from that intent, rather than quixotically trying to “protect” people from themselves. History makes it clear that it’s a fool’s errand.
Alcohol prohibition was dubbed “The Noble Experiment.” Its outcome and its lessons are obvious. It’s past time we learned from its failure. A century should be long enough.
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Hear, hear.
Anyone who calls themselves a libertarian should be in FULL accord with these sentiments.