![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/gs3O9JV.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t40 years ago last Friday, President Nixon declared “drug abuse” to be “America’s public enemy number one” and yet, almost half-a-century later, it is difficult to escape the fact that the war on drugs has become another government boondoggle in need of an a complete overhaul.\u00a0 While drug policy reform may seem a traditionally liberal sentiment, as early as 1990, National Review was engaging in the reform debate<\/a>.\u00a0 Then, in 1996, William F. Buckley Jr.<\/a> himself came out in support of a total change in the system, noting “the cost of the drug war is many times more painful, in all its manifestations, than would be the licensing of drugs\u2026”<\/p>\n \n\tMr. Buckley spoke the truth in 1996 as even now, some 15 years later, the drug war’s cost is higher than ever, and its painful manifestations remain numerous.\u00a0 Annually, Nixon’s “all-out offensive” costs taxpayers over $40 billion.\u00a0 Most of this is spent on law enforcement in efforts manifest\u2014not as programs that looks out for the health and well-being of citizens\u2014but as a growingly oppressive and draconian police state.\u00a0 From Plan Columbia to the Afghan poppy fields, America continues to push its particular brand of drug policy abroad, further eroding already unstable US foreign relations.\u00a0 In spite of the fact that most illicit drug users are white, racial minorities are still being disproportionally targeted by the judicial system and, despite new legislation last year<\/a>, the crack\/powder cocaine sentencing disparity still exists.\u00a0 The government has invested millions in DARE, a program that even the Surgeon General admits is ineffective<\/a>.\u00a0 Countries with prosecutorial approaches to drug policy, such as the US, have higher HIV\/AIDS rates among drug users than their reformed counterparts, further driving up already staggering healthcare costs.<\/p>\n \n\tIn light of these and other problems with the current system, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a brief report<\/a> at the beginning of the month that bluntly shares this conclusion of inefficiency, stating: “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”<\/p>\n \n\tThe Commission, a diverse, high-profile group including politicians, authors, and entrepreneurs, recommends substance decriminalization, the creation of treatment and harm-reduction programs for users, education-backed prevention programs, open debate about drug issues, and the framing of drug use as a public health problem instead of a criminal justice issue.\u00a0 While all of these may not be reconcilable with small-government approaches conservatives support, they represent a step in the right direction by opening a fresh debate on an issue that is still being dealt with in an archaic fashion.<\/p>\n \n\tIndeed, these, as well as their other recommendations are radically different from the current US approach.\u00a0 However, what may be most surprising about the report is the wide array of people\u2014of all backgrounds, professions and political ideologies<\/i>\u2014sharing in the Commission’s call for reform of drug policy.\u00a0 From both ends of the spectrum, mainstream media has been supportive of the Commission and its attempts to reopen the drug policy debate.\u00a0 In the past week, both The New York Times <\/a>and The Wall Street Journal<\/a> have published pieces in defense of the report.<\/p>\n \n\tIt is almost unnecessary to point out the fact that publications such as these, with staunchly different ideologies, rarely agree on an issue, let alone one that has become as culturally and politically taboo as drug policy reform.\u00a0 However, this cross-party reconciliation is no new phenomenon as ideologues from left and right have long agreed on the need for sweeping changes to the current system.<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition to the previously cited pieces, The Wall Street Journal recently published another article<\/a> drawing parallels between the failure of alcohol prohibition and the current war on drugs, while the Seattle Times has supported outright legalization of cannabis<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s not just Seattle that holds this opinion; Milton Friedman<\/a> endorsed cannabis legalization and Ron Paul recently advocated<\/a> for the legalization of all drugs.\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, Ethan Nadelmann<\/a>, head of the Drug Policy Alliance, is in favor of reform, but it is intrigung that the federal judge, Robert Sweet<\/a>, and numerous others from legal professions have advocated for drug regulation via the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).<\/p>\n \n\tAnd so it seems that in relation to drug policy, both conservatives and liberals can agree that something has to change.\u00a0 While a variety of opinions exist about the specific forms these changes should take\u2014decriminalization, harm-reduction, legalization, regulation, etc.\u2014everyone outside of Washington recognizes that America has a drug problem and is addicted to overspending on programs that simply don’t produce results.\u00a0 However, as they have consistently done in the past, those on Capital Hill are likely to continue maintaining the status quo in relation to drug policy.\u00a0 Any other approach results in politicians being branded as “soft on crime” by their rivals.<\/p>\n \n\tLike previous recommendations made by RAND<\/a> and the CATO Institute<\/a>, officials have already begun scrambling to undermine and ignore the Commission’s publication.\u00a0 As the BBC reports<\/a>, an official from the Office of National Drug Control Policy has argued, “making drugs more available\u2014as this report suggests\u2014will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe.”\u00a0 While decriminalization and pubic-health approaches may seem prima facie<\/i> ineffective in curtailing drug problems, we have 40 years of proof that our current approaches don’t work, and many outside the game of politics agree that a change is long overdue.<\/p>\n \n\tIt is now time for the government to begin acknowledging the costly inefficiency of the modern war on drugs.\u00a0 However, much like the addict, politicians are having trouble admitting that they have a problem.\u00a0 As long as “tough on drugs” approaches remain valuable political capital, the only measurable outcome will be to get America further hooked on a corrosive system that overspends and overreaches while it underachieves.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[],"dispatch-city":[],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fb0bff29d65","label":"Participants","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"object","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"featured_image_credits":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_651c536113a8e","label":"Featured Image Credits","name":"featured_image_credits","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":0,"_name":"featured_image_credits","_valid":1}},"enable_paywall":{"simple_value_formatted":"No","value_formatted":false,"value":0,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_66009169342f2","label":"Enable Paywall","name":"enable_paywall","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"true_false","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"message":"","default_value":0,"ui":0,"ui_on_text":"","ui_off_text":"","_name":"enable_paywall","_valid":1}}},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Brian P. Kelly","author_link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/author\/brian-p-kelly\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Dispatch<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dispatch<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 13 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 15, 2011","modified":"Updated on June 13, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 15, 2011 1:07 pm","modified":"Updated on June 13, 2023 3:57 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["author_meta","featured_img","jetpack_sharing_enabled","jetpack_featured_media_url","coauthors","tax_additional","comment_count","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","series_order","jetpack-related-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116803,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116802\/revisions\/116803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116802"},{"taxonomy":"dispatch-city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dispatch-city?post=116802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}