Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance on Drug War

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• published: 23 Nov 2015
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►Executive Director of The Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelmann on Why The Drug War Must End. This is a very powerful message that ALL of us can relate to & are effected by , in ways that we don't often give credit to, but subject ourselves to, nonethess, for terrible reasons like thinking that prohibition benefits anyone in society, which it does not in any way. ►The drug war is one of the most misunderstood subjects in mainstream political dialogue, even among people who are sympathetic to the plight of responsible drug users. It is rare for someone to come out and say that all drugs should be regulated & controlled(NOT legalized), but this is the only logically consistent stance on the issue. To say that some drugs should be, while others should not is still giving credence to the punishment paradigm and overlooking the external consequences of drug prohibition — or prohibition of any object, for that matter. ►What Regulating and Controlling all illicit drugs (not Legalizing) would cause: ►Portugal, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy are real world examples of this: ►Four nations have only gotten more and more positive results, as time passes: Portugal, for example, originally decriminalized in July of 2001,& all these categories have been consistently improving over this long period of all these years between then and now. ►(1) Reduce violent crime by more than 50% (Turf Wars, Innocent Bystanders,Addicts that rob, steal, kill for a fix.) ►(More Recently, studies show that 75%, according to Columbia University Studies in New York, is the amount of violence is either directly or indirectly caused by Prohibition and/or drug laws.) ►(2) Unlike Prohibition, which replaces drug dealers as soon as they're arrested, regulation & control of drugs fires the dealers, & does not allow the next entrepreneur to step in—Because they cannot compete with Drugs that can be produced cheaply by big Pharmaceutical Companies ►(3) Reduce drug availability to kids-- Just think back when you were young, were drugs hard to find or get? Just saying, LoL(& if your answer is yes, you were not a normal kid, by the way, because for the majority of us, the answer to that is No) ►(4) Reduce non-violent prisoner population-- We've incarcerated countless people & destroyed countless families, all in the name of enforcing morality on victimless crime(& no, that is not including any drug user or anyone else that causes any kind of harm to someone or forces anything on them, it is now well known how small a % of users that is, and there are numerous sources to verify that, upon results of any number of basic internet searches.) ►(5) Real crime can be focused on -- Instead of taking Law Enforcements' time away from it, by have them trying to teach people to have good habits via drug laws/morality enforcement, so they will actually be free to stop real crime & protect people from other people, instead of trying to protect people from themselves, which is all drug laws can ever attempt to accomplish. Prohibition does not even in the least bit, decrease drug use, supply, potency, violence, overdoses, addiction rates, treatment successes, or drug availability to kids. ►Crusaders cannot accept the fact that they are not God, that they have neither the right, nor the competence to run other people's lives. ►(6) Encourage genuine treatment for addicts-- In Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, etc. many addicts even willingly put their addictions behind them, get help & remain drug-free, the way that adults were meant to do it, by their own choice & free will, which unlike using force, like we try & do here in America, ACTUALLY works, & produces results like I am listing here, for societys using a Harm Reduction approach, instead of a Prohibition system ►(7) Prevent drug overdoses-- With Prohibition, the Underground Market is not only created, but it is continually growing, getting more money, power , & creates more all around violence, the longer it is in effect, by literally removing all regulation & control ►(8) Protects individual rights-- Drug use has been a part of many cultures for countless generations longer than childish Prohibition was even thought of, & for many, it is a part of their faith & religious practices(Yeah that's right, all humans are equally fallible & have neither the right nor the competence to decide what is or is not good or bad for anyone other than themself.) ► http://www.leap.cc -----Law Enforcement Against Prohibition