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This essay is based in part on an article written by Tibor R. Machan and Mark Thornton, 'The Re-legalization of Drugs,' that appeared in The Freeman, April 1991 * Vol. 41/Issue 4
Introduction
Many are growing increasingly skeptical of the claims by government officials about winning the war against drugs. Should this war be supported because a smaller percentage of teenagers use marijuana, or should it be opposed because a larger percentage of teenagers and young adults use cocaine and crack in the USA? Should people be optimistic when multi-billion dollar shipments of cocaine are confiscated, or pessimistic that seizures continue to increase yet have such little impact on price and consumption? Drug prohibition was doomed to failure from the start, no less so than alcohol prohibition, and the best alternative is an immediate return to complete legalization of such drugs.
Suppression of voluntary trade mostly drives the market underground and adds a criminal element, or so history teaches. So, the trade and use of drugs should not be prohibited and any abuse must be dealt with by means of education, moral fortitude, willpower, and social institutions, without benefit of coercive force of arms. Unfortunately this proposition is not obvious in our so called 'free' societies - perhaps due to the widespread conviction that individual responsibility is merely a relic of ancient philosophy and religion and the modern, scientific age has superseded the need for these. But this is wrong and shortly it will be obvious why.
The war on drugs received several major increases in funding during the 1980s, and the U.S. military is now heavily involved in drug-law enforcement. Despite these increased resources we are no closer to success with drug prohibition than communism is at creating a 'new economic man'. The fact that a full array of illegal drugs is available for sale throughout the Federal prison system, the Pentagon, and in front of the Drug Enforcement Administration building in Washington, D.C., demonstrates that little has been accomplished.
One lofty goal of drug prohibition was to prevent crime by removing access to mind-altering drugs. The great tragedy is that prohibition has created a vast new area of criminal activity - crimes such as robbery, burglary, and...