What are some other adverse effects of drug laws?
We can’t enforce those laws internally, so we try to enforce them by inhibiting the inflow of drugs from abroad, and we end up making it illegal in those countries, leading to gang fights that cause the deaths of thousands of people. It’s utterly immoral, and it has very negative effects on our foreign policies. It costs us — I think the last estimate was something like 50 or 60 billion dollars — and it’s money that is spent on doing harm. It’s very hard to see any good that has ever come from the attempt to enforce prohibition of drugs. We seem to be going in the opposite direction — our punishments for drug violations are becoming more severe. Why is that? It’s a very simple answer. We were able to get rid of prohibition because more than half the population were potential violators of prohibition, which only passed because it was up at an election when we were in World War I and a large fraction of the male voters were involved in war. On the other hand, with respect to drug use,
