"What You Should Know About Drug Prohibition" | Learn Liberty
"What You Should Know About
Drug Prohibition" by @LearnLiberty
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In its history,
America has experienced two major periods of drug prohibition. This first was the
Federal alcohol prohibition from 1920-1933. The second is the current war on drugs, which began in
1971.
According to
Prof.
Angela Dills, during these periods of prohibition in America, both homicide rates and police enforcement costs increased. This makes sense, as prohibitions never actually eliminate use.
Rather, prohibitions convert peaceful and legal markets into black markets. In black markets, when disputes arise over sales territory, product quality, or money, the government legal system is not available. This forces drug dealers to resolve disputes on their own, which often leads to violence.
The violence of black markets, along with the enforcement of drug policy, attracts the attention of law enforcement.
Law enforcement is costly, and the time spent enforcing drug laws could have been spent preventing other crimes like murder, theft, and rape.
Drug prohibition not only generates more violence and increases the cost of law enforcement; it also distracts law enforcement and puts citizens at greater risk of crime.
► Sources
Homicide death rate rises between 25-75% because of prohibition:
"
Violence and the
U.S. Prohibitions of
Drugs and
Alcohol"
http://aler.oxfordjournals.org/content/
1/1/78.abstract
Quality is uncertain using
Prohibition and alcoholic psychosis and alcoholism deaths:
"
Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition"
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2006862
► Learn More
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/miron.legalization.drugs/ [article]:
Economist Jeffrey Miron explains how drug legalization would great reduce violent acts
http://healthland.time.com/
2011/06/17/top-10-unhealthy-side-effects-of-the-war-on-drugs/photo/richard-m-nixon/ [slideshow]:
Time Magazine runs down the negative side effects of the
War on Drugs including 15,
000 drug related homicides in
2010 and 35,000 dead from prescription drug overdose in
2007
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138396 [article]: "The Economic
Case Against Drug Prohibition"
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