The "War on Drugs" Does More Harm Than Good 
by Guy McLendon (http://www.mclendon.net/)

A More Effective Drug Abuse Policy

Current Situation

Have you ever experienced a situation in your personal life where - the harder you work, the less your result?  In the War on Drugs, the government's efforts are backfiring, but the Democrats & Republicans don't have the courage to acknowledge this reality.  Just like alcohol prohibition and the 18th amendment of the 1920s, the war on drugs will be repealed ... it's just a question of when.

For you technically inclined folks, here's why the current war on drugs is doomed to fail.  The flow of illegal drugs from producers to consumers follows a social version of "Ohm's Law" - that's an engineering relationship between driving potential, flow & resistance.  Efforts of law enforcement agencies act to restricts the flow of drugs.  Big profits for the drug pushers provide a push that creates the flow.

Here's the rub: the law of supply & demand acts to increase prices after government restricts the flow.  As law enforcement reduces drug flow, profit margins increase ... The increased profit, or driving potential, keeps the flow going despite ever increasing resistance.  The government's war can only be "won" by extreme levels of law enforcement, and the casualties will be human rights and civil liberties.

Proposed Changes

• Decriminalize non-violent drug usage of all types
• Market based medical facilities will be allowed to open "Substance Abuse Centers" (SACs)
  • Primary mission is to educate abusers regarding the medical damage they inflict upon themselves
  • "Work to Rehab" program
    • Offered when clients express desire to quit
    • Client selects charity group to serve
      • Example charities:  Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, etc.
    • Client is paid minimum wage to serve charity
      • Salary is funded by excise tax
      • Program is limited to typical rehab time
      • Example:  client can enter program only 3 times, and program lasts up to 120 working hours - 3 weeks
  • SAC's will sell commonly abused substances
    • Prices are less that street price, so black market profit margins are eliminated
    • Available products would include all types of drugs and clean needles
    • Replace the existing black market product creation and delivery system
    • Regulations prohibit standard commercial advertising
    • Products delivered intravenously would be consumed onsite
  • "Clients" would receive mandatory training regarding the dangers & medical consequences of the respective drug they plan to procure & abuse
    • Amount of training would be proportional to severity of applicable drug - i.e., more hazardous drugs require more training
    • Types of training would include videos, meetings with counselors, etc.
    • National Institute on Drug Abuse, www.nida.nih.gov,  would oversee private sector development of training videos
  • After receipt of appropriate training, clients could sign for & receive their poison
• Retain, but lower, criminal penalties for non-licensed manufacture & distribution
  • Eliminate mandatory minimum sentence
  • Violent crimes, including those committed in context of black-market drug transactions, would still be prosecuted
  • Retain penalties for driving automobiles while under the influence of controlled substances
  • Illegal distribution of drugs to minors would retain felony status
• Revise Employer Testing Requirements
  • Repeal mandatory testing requirements by employers
    • Employers retain their obligation to provide a safe work environment for all employees
    • Employers may elect, at their discretion, to continue employee drug testing programs
• Revise Law Enforcement Task Assignments
  • Reassign a portion of law enforcement agents who are currently assigned to drug enforcement assignments
  • New assignments would involve interdiction of weapons of mass destruction at the US border, and would typically be related to the goal of reducing violent crime.
• Judicial Case Load
  • Review current judicial case load, and dismiss all cases that involve non-violent drug usage
  • Reassign the public legal staff that currently serves to prosecute applicable drug related cases
    • Some new assignments would be to identify those cases that are in appeal, or that are closed, that involve non-violent drug related cases that may merit special reconsideration

Expected Benefits

• Drug abuse may decline
  • Training films MUST be striking enough to prevent current drug non-users from starting
• Black market drug-pushers go out of business
  • As clients migrate over toward usage of SACs, the drug creation & distribution organizations will "wither on the vine"
• Provide regulated commercial opportunities for legitimate businesses
  • Domestic farmers & pharmaceutical companies are likely to grab market share from black market organizations
• Non-violent citizens would no longer live in fear of needless persecution
  • Citizen's level of trust in their government would increase
• Medical Benefits:
  • Spread of AIDS HIV will decrease
    • Sharing of needles is one risk factor for transmission of AIDS, and such sharing will be nearly eliminated
  • Medical dangers from unsafe products would be eliminated 
• Prison Improvements
  • Qty of non-violent prisoners will decrease
  • Space will be made available for longer retention of violent criminals
  • Reduced burden on taxpayers
    • Assumes vacated space is not fully consumed by longer retention of violent criminals
• Tax Benefits
  • A decrease in prison population means that more folks will be paying taxes, and not consuming resources
  • Reduction of prison population will improve national productivity
  • Sales at SACs will be subject to excise taxes
    • Similar to current taxes on tobacco and alcohol
    • Applied toward reduction of violent crime, and "Work to Rehab" program
    • "New" excise taxes may be "budget neutral" in that they replace income that's already being received from drug interdiction & seizure activities
• Public Safety
  • Shift in prison population means that fewer violent criminals will be on the street
  • Law enforcement response times should decrease, so citizens distress calls will be serviced more promptly
• International Relationships
  • International tensions should ease between the United States and Latin/South America
    • Flow of illicit drug traffic will be eliminated by lack of profit margin
    • US will not need to coax countries into fighting the war on drugs, and may even permit limited imports from authorized foreign sources