In his long and distinguished career, former Reagan Secretary of State George P. Shultz has been called a lot of things, but, to my knowledge, “hippie” has never been one of them. It may then come as a surprise that the statesman and economist is one of the most vocal proponents of drug policy reform.
In an excerpt from his new book, Issues on My Mind: Strategies for the Future, posted today at Defining Ideas, Shultz explains that, “the war on drugs that the United States has waged for decades has proved to be a losing battle, so I see the urgent need for an effective program to deal with this problem.”
He outlines the massive drawbacks of current U.S. policy, citing the drug war’s $100 billion annual price tag; the inflated bureaucracy used to police illegal drugs; the continued availability of drugs in the U.S.; sustained levels of drug use among Americans (equivalent to or higher than other countries with radically different approaches to the problem); and innumerable externalities related to a prohibition system, such as the continued cartel-related violence in Mexico.
Shultz first became concerned about the issue in 1969 when he served as Nixon’s Secretary of Labor. Some readers may recall that Nixon was the first to officially declare the “War on Drugs” in 1971. Now, more than forty years later, Shultz believes “that drug abuse should be treated as a health problem” and suggests that the U.S. “should carefully study the experiences of other countries with decriminalization—as distinct from simple legalization—of drugs.”
None of this is new or revolutionary to those of us who have been convinced that the drug war has been a failure since day one. Indeed, Shultz himself has been outspoken about the issue for many years, and on the 2011 Global Commission on Drug Policy whose findings concluded that “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”
Still, it is important that prominent figures like Shultz continue to speak out about this important issue, and he should be applauded for his open-mindedness and dedication to pursuing practical policies that are truly in the public’s interest.
Read Shultz’s full excerpt at the Hoover Institution’s online journal, Defining Ideas.