Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence

• Story Highlights
• Jeffrey Miron: Thousands have been killed in Mexico's ongoing drug war
• He says U.S. drug policy leads to corruption of politicians and law enforcement
• Miron: Legalizing drugs is the best way to reduce drug violence
• He says drugs should be controlled through regulation and taxation

By Jeffrey A. Miron
Special to CNN


Editor's note: Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University.


CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Over the past two years, drug violence in Mexico has become a fixture of the daily news. Some of this violence pits drug cartels against one another; some involves confrontations between law enforcement and traffickers.


Recent estimates suggest thousands have lost their lives in this "war on drugs."
The U.S. and Mexican responses to this violence have been predictable: more troops and police, greater border controls and expanded enforcement of every kind. Escalation is the wrong response, however; drug prohibition is the cause of the violence.


Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.


Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.


Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.


The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.


Prohibition of drugs corrupts politicians and law enforcement by putting police, prosecutors, judges and politicians in the position to threaten the profits of an illicit trade. This is why bribery, threats and kidnapping are common for prohibited industries but rare otherwise. Mexico's recent history illustrates this dramatically.


Prohibition erodes protections against unreasonable search and seizure because neither party to a drug transaction has an incentive to report the activity to the police. Thus, enforcement requires intrusive tactics such as warrantless searches or undercover buys. The victimless nature of this so-called crime also encourages police to engage in racial profiling.


Prohibition has disastrous implications for national security. By eradicating coca plants in Colombia or poppy fields in Afghanistan, prohibition breeds resentment of the United States. By enriching those who produce and supply drugs, prohibition supports terrorists who sell protection services to drug traffickers.
Prohibition harms the public health. Patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma and other conditions cannot use marijuana under the laws of most states or the federal government despite abundant evidence of its efficacy. Terminally ill patients cannot always get adequate pain medication because doctors may fear prosecution by the Drug Enforcement Administration.


Drug users face restrictions on clean syringes that cause them to share contaminated needles, thereby spreading HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases.


Prohibitions breed disrespect for the law because despite draconian penalties and extensive enforcement, huge numbers of people still violate prohibition. This means those who break the law, and those who do not, learn that obeying laws is for suckers.


Prohibition is a drain on the public purse. Federal, state and local governments spend roughly $44 billion per year to enforce drug prohibition. These same governments forego roughly $33 billion per year in tax revenue they could collect from legalized drugs, assuming these were taxed at rates similar to those on alcohol and tobacco. Under prohibition, these revenues accrue to traffickers as increased profits.


The right policy, therefore, is to legalize drugs while using regulation and taxation to dampen irresponsible behavior related to drug use, such as driving under the influence. This makes more sense than prohibition because it avoids creation of a black market. This approach also allows those who believe they benefit from drug use to do so, as long as they do not harm others.


Legalization is desirable for all drugs, not just marijuana. The health risks of marijuana are lower than those of many other drugs, but that is not the crucial issue. Much of the traffic from Mexico or Colombia is for cocaine, heroin and other drugs, while marijuana production is increasingly domestic. Legalizing only marijuana would therefore fail to achieve many benefits of broader legalization.
It is impossible to reconcile respect for individual liberty with drug prohibition. The U.S. has been at the forefront of this puritanical policy for almost a century, with disastrous consequences at home and abroad.


The U.S. repealed Prohibition of alcohol at the height of the Great Depression, in part because of increasing violence and in part because of diminishing tax revenues. Similar concerns apply today, and Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that the Drug Enforcement Administration will not raid medical marijuana distributors in California suggests an openness in the Obama administration to rethinking current practice.


Perhaps history will repeat itself, and the U.S. will abandon one of its most disastrous policy experiments.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeffrey Miron.

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"You know, it takes more energy to frown than it does to smile?"

"Really? Did you know it takes more energy for you to tell me that than it does for you to shut the fuck up and leave me alone?" ~ Bill Hicks

Naah guys... we should legalize just cannabis... to prevent pot smokers to buy from dealers who also sell heroin

but if you do like amsterdam then you dont have all the heroin junkies on the streets cause they have a place to go. you also dont get the sharing of dirty needles that spread disease such as AIDS. then you also get rid of the major importation of these hard drugs.

legalizing all drugs would in the bigger picture make sence but if we could liberate marijuana from the chains of druglords and cartels then that would be a good start i think

marijuana legalization would solve a host of problems! This is a great article that explains how it would helpthe state of CA get out of their deficit problem! http://caivp.org/article/issues/2009/3/4/blazing-trail

My father and I got into a Q&A session the other night and he asked me the classic question - If we legalize marijuana, wouldn't users of hard drugs be say "Well, if you legalize marijuana, you should legalize cocaine, heroine, etc" and I replied "Those are all processed drugs and have been proven deadly among their users, and marijuana has caused no deaths, reportedly." It's just something the feds cannot use as an excuse anymore. They can say all they want that smoke inhalation can cause emphysema - and so I ask, what the fuck do cigarettes cause?

BTW, I can run out of pot and not go apeshit if I don't have access to weed for awhile. If a run out of cigarettes, I HAVE to go get a pack. People say, well if marijuana was legal and you could go to the store to purchase a pack of joints just as easily as you can purchase cigarettes, you would feel the same way about HAVING to have a pack of joints.... and I say, SO FUCKING WHAT??? I would quit smoking cigarettes... Everyone has a skeleton in their closet - and I choose not to drink, so ....

__________________
"You know, it takes more energy to frown than it does to smile?"

"Really? Did you know it takes more energy for you to tell me that than it does for you to shut the fuck up and leave me alone?" ~ Bill Hicks

theres an idea

Dammit - I went back over and read what I posted a couple hours ago... damn I was high! I like to ramble on when I'm feeling good!

__________________
"You know, it takes more energy to frown than it does to smile?"

"Really? Did you know it takes more energy for you to tell me that than it does for you to shut the fuck up and leave me alone?" ~ Bill Hicks

Since alcohol is the gateway drug for all younguns', it's a total hypocrisy to blame weed.


out.

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...out
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You haven't countered nothing, because the points you made are not valid, you are basing your counter on information you don't understand, regardless the accuracy of the information, because it does not state what you are saying.. (Brazko)

I totally agree. its all about that first step.