As far back as I can remember the nations that I've lived in have been waging a warn on drugs and drug abuse together with addiction has increased and increased over my entire life time. Is it time to change the way drugs are dealt with. Has the war on drugs failed?
I must admit I'm a believer in making all drugs legal, every single one of them. There are a host of reasons why:
Drug pushers are in it to make money. Once someone is hooked they can raise the price pretty much as high as they want, and the addict will do what it takes to raise the money. Whether that's street robbery, mugging, prostitution, burglary, they'll find the money somehow. If people can get their fix over the counter at CVS it puts a cap on the price, meaning there's less profit in it for the dealers and less crime. If the dealer wants $100 for a wrap of heroin, or you can get it from CVS for $25, that means the addict using illegal means to fund their habit has to commit 75% less crime to acquire their fix.
When the illegal trade in drugs generates such huge cashflows it's inevitable that the people at the top will look to protect their own cashflows, so you get battles over the most lucrative territories. Too bad for any innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire if rival drug gangs are trying to drive each other out. Whether victims of such a battle are members of gangs or innocent bystanders, the deaths and injuries carry a human as well as a financial cost.
Drug dealers have been known to target schools, looking to get kids hooked while they are young. They can offer a hit of something for maybe a couple of bucks, again knowing that once the child is hooked they'll find a way to come up with the cash for their habit. Once again there is a huge human cost as well as financial cost if the child is pilfering cash from parents or turning to crime. There's also the human cost of their education being disrupted. If the dealer has little prospect of making big bucks from getting people hooked they are less likely to bother - if the drugs are freely available over the counter what's the point in trying to get someone hooked when you won't make any profit from them any more? Which leads into another point...
At present drugs are illegal and anything illegal has an air of "cool, rebel, anti-authority" attached to it. So the teenager who wants to act like the tough guy (or tough girl, depending) can gain a bit of kudos from being the one who's involved, however tangentially, with the world of drugs. Flip that around - to your average 15-year-old boy trying to look cool in front of his mates, what could be less cool than standing in line at the local Walgreens, behind an 83-year-old woman wanting her corn plasters, to get a couple of grams of cocaine?
If drugs are legalised the purity can be guaranteed. If you buy your cocaine over the counter you can be sure it's quality controlled and of a known purity. If you buy your cocaine from a dodgy character in a tunnel there's no way of knowing whether he's cut it with sugar, flour, battery acid, or anything else. You'll find out soon enough if you snort it and it burns the insides of your nose away. Chances are he's not covered by any form of trading standards, is unlikely to offer a refund, and if things get too hot because of unhappy customers (assuming the unhappy customers are even still alive) all he needs to do is move to another location to sell his wares. So once again the human suffering is alleviated, not to mention the financial burden of the medical treatment required when drugs are cut with something really nasty.
While drugs are illegal it's harder for addicts to seek help, keeping everything underground. If drugs are legal a tax can be applied to them which can be used to fund treatment for people who overdo it or who do become addicted. It can offer a way out that doesn't involve prison time.
There's always a chance that if drugs are suddenly made available over the counter people who might never have used them might start to use them, which could increase the human cost if they do become addicted. But I'd hazard a guess that people who want to use drugs are already using them - cigarettes and alcohol are legal and generally available yet some people choose not to partake of either or both. It's not unreasonable to conclude that the number of people who would suddenly start using cocaine because it had been legalised would be very high.
Speaking of alcohol, since alcohol is a legal substance there's no push from the people who sell it to try something harder. You don't find liquor store owners sounding out the person who wants a six-pack and trying to persuade them to try whisky instead. There's no need, all the products are legal and it makes more sense to just let the customer buy what they want than to push something they don't want. There's also the sense of encouraging responsible drinking, with programs like Alcoholics Anonymous for those who do realise their drinking has become problematic.
There would certainly be some costs associated with legalising drugs but I find it hard to believe they would be as high as the costs of ongoing prohibition.
