Anti Drug War is Unconstitutional and Complete Failure.

The United States anti drug war is an atrocity that has cost this nation hundreds of billions of dollars, violated states and citizen’s rights, incarcerated thousands of people and destroyed countless lives around the globe. 

The war on drugs began in the early 20th century, when the first drug laws like the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914) and Marijuana Tax Act (1937) were signed into law. 

These laws were promoted by many industrialist newspaper magnates like Randolph Hearst as the cure to America’s greatest threat; illicit drugs. 

Hearst used his money and influence to lobby for these laws because hemp, the pulpy stock of marijuana could be used to produce paper more cheaply than his vast tracks of timber could. 

In order to maintain his monopolies and protect his investments he had his army of newspaper writers trump up stories about the negative social effects of drugs. 

They tied marijuana use to Mexican immigrants and African Americans in an attempt to scare white America into pressing their legislators for these laws. 

In reality, the Federal government has no Constitutional basis for passing any legislative measures banning any substance. 

The Tenth Amendment states that ”The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows them to make laws creating a prohibition against drugs, so these decisions are then left up to the states and people. 

State’s Rights

The Ninth Amendment says that ”The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”.

Therefore, the Feds have no right to infringe upon the use or sell of drugs just because it is not mentioned in the Constitution.

By passing these tyrannical laws, the government has overstepped its bounds and trampled upon the states and people’s rights.

Economics of Anti Drug War

The government argues that drug use causes violent crime and even supports terrorism around the world.

Thus, they feel justified in waging an anti drug war that costs this nation $40 billion a year.

In fact it is the government who has created this black market by interfering in the natural supply and demand make up of this economy. 

By prohibiting drug use and enforcing stiff penalties against drug traffickers and users the U.S. government has created one of the most profitable industries in the world. 

Terrorists like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the FARC and IRA all have amassed huge amounts of money by controlling the local drug trade.

If these drugs were legal they wouldn’t be as valuable and the profitability would disappear.

Maintaining the System

But just like the drug trade, the drug war is big business.

The government employs thousands of people to carry out their prohibition against narcotics; police officers, prosecutors, administration and bureaucrats all make their living off the drug trade. 

The State and Federal prison systems are bursting with anti-drug war prisoners. In 2004 21% of state and 55% of federal inmates were incarcerated on drug offenses. 

Many prisons are under private-corporate control prison officials and guards having created powerful lobbying machines; their most recent victory was in California where they were able to stop a law that would cut down on non-violent drug incarcerations by 1/3. 

Instead of offering treatment to those people that are addicted to drugs, the government locks them up.

When states exercise their right to govern the use of drugs, for example medical marijuana, the Federal government wastes resources shutting down dispensaries that provide marijuana to the sick.

Addicts and those who need drugs for medical purposes should be able to obtain a prescription and make their own decision on what they will use or not. 

Prohibition does not work! Governments can’t regulate the use of substances by the populace.

Not only is this anti drug war unconstitutional but it’s unproductive.

87 years, hundreds of billions of dollars, an over crowded prison system and drugs that are easily available show that the government’s anti drug war simply does not work.