America's Detrimental Drug Policy

The War on Drugs has been an expensive and colossal failure. There is a better approach.

In 1971 President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be public enemy number one. The War on Drugs had begun. Through numerous Presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, and dozens of Congresses, the war has raged on. Over fifty years, and at a cost of over $1 trillion to American taxpayers.

What did all of that money get our country?

• Illicit Drug usage in 2019 was near a 40 year high

• Over 350,000 people currently imprisoned for drug offenses

• ~$40,000 per year cost per federal inmate

• Increase in drug related violence

• Mexico struggling with violence and corruption due to cartels fighting for control of supply lines

The War on Drugs has been a colossal failure. 

The American public largely agrees with the assessment, and this isn’t a partisan issue. Over 80% of each political demographic, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, believe the War on Drugs has been a failure.

It has destroyed lives and even entire communities, yet we’re still spending over $40 billion annually on this failed policy.

America spends an additional $80 billion every year to cover the cost of the prison systems where almost half of all inmates are incarcerated for drug related crimes. Another study suggested the true cost to the government and families involved is closer to $180 billion.

It is time for a new approach. One that uses everything our country has learned over the past 50 years, along with what other nations have learned in regards to narcotics.

However, it can be difficult to change our thinking on drugs. Depending on when you grew up, you may have been inundated with D.A.R.E. campaigns, and “this is your brain on drugs” commercials. Then there is the ongoing news surrounding Fentanyl, gangs, and cartels. The worst news accompanies any conversation around narcotics.

As with most issues, this is not the full story.

Marijuana was said to be dangerous, that it will permanently ruin your brain, that it is extremely addictive, that it is a gateway drug to cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines. Yet what we actually know is that it is less dangerous than either alcohol or cigarettes, both legal substances. 

• Over 140,000 Americans die each year from alcohol

• Over 480,000 Americans die each year from tobacco

• There have been no recorded deaths from a cannabis overdose

However there have been caffeine overdose deaths, although rare and mainly from powdered and pill forms of caffeine. Caffeine is also more addictive than marijuana.

And yet, cannabis is still federally illegal and is only legal in 38 states so far.

Marijuana isn’t the only drug to have had a smear campaign to make it seem like a deadly scourge on civilized life. Psilocybin, also known as Magic Mushrooms, is a drug that was heavily researched in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, but tighter regulations and cultural views reduced that research until more recent times.

Psilocybin has been shown to positively help combat addictions, PTSD, and numerous other mental conditions including depression. Like the path of marijuana legalization, a few states have now decriminalized psychedelics. Oregon made psilocybin fully legal for personal use as long as it is at a licensed facility.

Some members of Congress have also been working on legislation to legalize psilocybin for medical use on a federal level.

As these substances have had their regulations relaxed or have even become fully legal, what have we seen? That life continues to function and that the majority of the population uses legal drugs responsibly. There hasn’t been any detrimental effect on our nation or to our society.

Decades ago Portugal had increasing problems with heroin. Their response was similar to the United States. They enacted harsh penalties for drug use and strict enforcement. By the 1990s, half of their prison population was incarcerated for drug related crimes and yet the drug problem continued to exist, again just like the US. In 2001, they tried a different approach. Portugal became the first nation in the world to decriminalize all personal drug use.

In the years since, Portugal has seen a large reduction in drug use, in HIV and hepatitis rates (which spreads through needle sharing/reuse in drug communities), overdose rates, drug related crime, and of course in incarceration rates. Despite having fully decriminalized all personal drug use, Portugal currently has a drug use rate lower than the average amongst European nations.

Drug dealing and manufacturing remains illegal in Portugal, but any person caught having a 10 day supply or less of hard drugs on their person, such as cocaine and heroin, is sent to a doctor and a social worker, the types of people best adept at handling drug addiction. That is a far more sensible policy than here in the US and it has proven to work for decades.

Some US cities have been slowly working towards those types of policies by having safe spaces for drug users to do drugs where there are clean needles, no arrests/prosecution, and where drug counselors can work with the users on their addiction. These policies work. Drug use goes down, overdoses go down, and people actually get past their addiction to live productive healthy lives instead of sitting in prison for decades.

There are mountains of evidence which show us that harsh penalties to drug use makes the problem worse, whereas decriminalization of personal use improves the situation in every metric.

We should ask ourselves one final question: Why should the government be telling an adult what they can or can’t put in their own body? That is a very anti-freedom stance from a country that declares the greatness of freedom every day.

The reason we have freedoms and rights is to ensure that others don’t get to dictate their personal morality onto us. One person can’t force their beliefs onto the rest of the public, no matter if it is beliefs around religion, relationships, or recreation.

If America had spent more time simply thinking about our rights as individuals, we might have been able to avoid the entire War on Drugs all together.

It is time for America to focus on laws that protect our citizens from each other, not from themselves. And it is time to base our policies off of science and data, not personal intuitions or beliefs.

Decriminalize personal drug use. Let doctors and drug counsellors deal with addiction, and leave police to deal with more serious crimes.

We can save American lives and taxpayers’ money.