Drug War

Late last night about a quarter past four
Ladanyi come knockin' down my hotel room door
Where's the cocaine
It's runnin' all 'round my brain
I was talking to my doctor down at the hospital
He said, "Son, it says here you're twenty-seven,
But that's impossible
Cocaine... you look like you could be forty-five"

                             Jackson Browne 1977

         

Last night, when Amy in the kids were safely in bed, I decided to try cocaine.  I had heard about it for a long time, and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  I called a friend of a friend, and in a few hours I was set.  I figured that if I was going to do it I wanted to get the most out of it, so I decided to go old-style Richard Pryor and freebase.  To be honest, I don't remember much after that.  My neighbor told me that I knocked on his door at 3:00 A.M., took a swing at him and tried to dropkick his puppy.  I woke up in a jail cell, and my first court date is at the end of the month.

So obviously none of that is true.  But what if it was? (Not the part about the dog, the drugs).  Would you care if I had done illegal drugs last night?  Before you answer, know that if the situation were reversed, I wouldn’t care if you had.  That doesn’t mean that I don't care about you.  As discussed here, if you are reading this you're probably family, a friend, or at least not my mortal enemy.   If you ask my opinion on whether I think you should take drugs, I would tell you that it is one of the two or three dumbest things you could possibly do in your life.  Besides the obvious health affects, you will never meet a truly successful person who takes street drugs.  Never.

But I would not care in the sense of making it a crime.  The main reason is so important that I'm going to be rude and go all-caps on you:

TRUE FREEDOM MEANS THE FREEDOM TO DO STUPID THINGS.

 As a libertarian (not liberal, libertarian), I want both you and I to have freedom against government intrusion into our lives, even if we use that freedom to make bad decisions.  An obvious exception is when our bad decisions cause others harm, such as drunk driving or murder.   But for victimless acts, freedom is the most important goal.  I know an argument can be made that virtually all bad acts affect others in some negative way, but I think as a society we are smart enough to figure out where to draw the line.  It is seriously harmful to you to eat Haagen-Dazs all day, smoke cigarettes, or watch any show that has the word “Kardashian” in it.  But we don't outlaw these, nor should we.

The second most important reason to legalize drugs is to reduce crime.  Approximately 18% of people in jail committed their crime to get money to buy drugs.  In federal prison, about 50% are locked up for drug offenses.  50%!  In state prison the number is about 20%.  More than half a million people are in prison for drug offenses today, compared to 40,000 in 1981.  If drugs were legalized the price would immediately plummet, and being assaulted so that an addict could get money for his habit would be a thing of the past.  Also, on a fairness level, why should we have to pay for other people’s stupid decisions?  I could go into the absurd amount of money we’re wasting on the War on Drugs, but it’s getting late.

Whenever I talk to people about this, their main concern about legalizing drugs is the children.  A lot of people also have no interest in paying to keep drug abusers behind bars, but they're worried that this would lead to more drug use among children and adolescents.  Look, I have four young children.  I would be happy if when the teacher asks them what they want to be when they grow up, they give the usual response of firemen, policemen, doctor, or whatever mommy/daddy does.  I would not exactly be thrilled if their answer was “you know, what I really want to do is bounce around from job to job, be a horrendous parent and spouse, and find myself in the dead of winter in the middle of the night at my dealer's house because I need a fix”.   I have slightly higher hopes for my children.

So how do we keep that from happening?  There are many ways that would work.  First, unlike cigarettes, drugs would not be allowed to be sold in grocery stores or places like Walmart.  They would stay illegal until a certain age.  We could set it up so that anyone seeking to use drugs would have to do it in a controlled environment; a room run by a private company or government in which they would have to stay in for a few hours or for the whole night.  Who would put up with this?  The addicts, obviously.  They're desperate.  They would jump at the chance to get free or subsidized drugs without having to commit a violent crime that could land them in jail for decades. 

The real winners of course would be us.  We’d be freer.  We’d be richer.  We’d be safer. 

Have a good night everyone.

                             JR