Apr 20, 2010

why do we still have a War on Drugs?

Jason Kuznicki on the War on Drugs:
Considered as a whole, the War on Drugs is the single worst violation of liberty perpetrated by our government. Nothing else even comes close.

The War on Drugs imprisons hundreds of thousands for no greater crime than owning a chemical or an herb. It breaks up families. It ends educations. It ends careers. It poisons. It incites murder. It makes citizens mistrust one another and mistrust the police. It robs us all of our dignity, even if we don’t use drugs. It turns the Fourth Amendment into nothing more than a pious fiction....

The most depressing part is that nothing in the above is even remotely news. It was true last April 20, and it will in all likelihood remain true next April 20. These are overwhelmingly self-inflicted wounds. Why, Americans, do we do this to ourselves? And why does pointing it out have so little effect?
Because of inertia. Because of dirty hippies. Because of heavily invested Drug Warriors. Because of special interests and government conspiracies. Because of Doritos. Because of rampant hypocrisy. Because of ignorance, willful or otherwise. Because of misplaced moral concern. Because of... because.

After all, being unreasonable is just that.

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