Defending the Truth

Hello BP. Welcome to dtt.
Visit often. Post a lot.
And we've been paying for it ever since.

Taking citizens prisoners of Drug War might seem to cost merely the cost of the food, clothing, shelter, education, medical, dental, and other benefits we pay for.
But the cost is more than that. It's most likely before that citizen was criminalized; & taken prisoner, s/he was paying taxes.
So if it costs $25k per year to hold that citizen prisoner; but that citizen was paying $25k in taxes before being taken prisoner of War; then the true cost of holding that citizen prisoner is not $25k / year; but $50k / year.

That might not seem like that much.
But multiply it out by the hundreds of thousands of non-violent prisoners of U.S. Drug War; and it stacks up to be real $money.

And WE'RE paying for it! The victims of Drug War are the tax payers.

Because of recent statistics I read, I thought the U.S. Drug War was costing us ~$9 $Billion per year.
But those statistics were unclear.
It turns out those were just the costs in California!

Nation wide, the costs for this War we are dismally losing is many times that much.
We are losing this War.
But please don't take my word for it.
Just read how vividly the head of the DEA describes our humiliating, ongoing defeat.

So, which drugs should be legal in the U.S.

Marajuna
LSD
Crack
Any others?

That's the right question John.
Perhaps the most sensible answer is, why should ANY of them be legal.

To me, the answer to that question is:
Drug War, meaning, martial oppression for the purpose of usurping the right of Liberty is fundamentally, profoundly wrong, no matter what the drug.

Before ANY of those drugs was illegal, they were less of a problem than they are now.

So not only do we have a worse drug abuse problem. We compound that with a Drug War problem.

In fact, it seems Drug War has actually inspired the creation of some of these drugs. Would crack exist, if not for the powerful economic incentive provided by Drug War to render more conventional powdered cocaine more compact, for smuggling?