LEGALISE IT?

DRUG LEGALISATION

Prohibition on narcotics celebrated its hundredth birthday recently. What did it achieve? Gangsterism flourishes on all levels of an illegal industry worth around $320 billion a year. Imagine the massive costs of combat against all drug related crime. Look at emerging countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Afghanistan which are in the tough grip of the drug cartels. Despite all such consequences drug consumption did not fall.
happy-bday-prohibition
The Economist believes the 100-year struggle was not only pointless but also illiberal and murderous. The paper questions why we transformed the issue from a public-health problem into a law-and-order problem and suggests to legalise a regulated and taxed drug trade. Tax proceeds could then be used for education about the risks of drug taking and to treat addiction.
If you dont take illegal drugs, then ask yourself: Would you do so, if it wasnt forbidden? The answer is probably: No.

Do you think we should stick with prohibition as there is still a theoretical chance that it prevents us and our children from taking drugs? Or are you prepared to trade off such chance of prevention through prohibition against the one of massive crime reduction? Or do you think it’s acually prohibition which makes drugs interesting in the first place, and so has an opposite effect? Do you think education can achieve even more than prohibition?

Have your say.

May 18th, 2009 by Christine