My view: controlled substances

 As with most of my positions, my view on controlled substances is that we should allow for the broadest application of liberty that is reasonable. My opinion on the legalization of recreational drugs is informed by the outcome of the Prohibition era in the US. During the 13 years wherein alcohol was banned via Constitutional amendment, we saw an increase in organized crime and the sale of alcohol on the black market. It didn't stop the consumption of alcohol, it merely increased the danger in doing so. And we can see now how the use of illegal recreational drugs has added danger due to the illegality. For the purpose of simplicity, I will  use the term "drugs" in this post to refer to recreational substances (which are typically illegal or restricted).

The United States has 3500 people per 100k which use drugs--far more than any other country. By comparison, Canada has 1920 and Mexico has 496. One reason I quote these statistics is to show just how very racist it is to assert that Mexican immigrants are drug users, when Mexicans are far less likely than US citizens to use drugs. From what I have read on the subject, it seems that drug addiction is correlated with a sense of loneliness or depression--that when people feel more connected with other people their reliance on drugs decreases. So personally I feel the best solution to reducing drug use is building stronger communities where people are more involved, rather than stricter laws and more severe sentences.

In the US we have seen how the war on drugs has only resulted in massive prison populations. We have more imprisoned people within the US than any other country in the world--at 1.8 million prisoners, the second place being China (which has more than 4 times higher population) at 1.7 million prisoners. We rank number 5 in incarceration rate, at 541 prisoners per 100k people. And the vast majority of the prisoners we have are direct result of the war on drugs--strict laws against even the possession of controlled substances. Clearly what we are doing is not working. We have some of the strictest laws, the most incarcerated people, and also the highest drug use. We must find another way to address the problem since locking people up doesn't help--if anything it only makes matters worse.

I don't want to see a more violent, more aggressive, more drug-addicted country. I want to see a happier, healthier country which finds a reasonable, rational approach to drug addiction. I believe recreational drugs should not only be legalized but mass-produced by drug manufacturers who can do so safely, to produce drugs which aren't laced with unknown substances or tainted by an imperfect manufacturing process. If they are legal, we can tax them and we can use that tax money to fund social programs to help people with drug addictions. Shaming them and locking them has proven time and time again to be ineffective at curtailing future use and relapse into addiction. Showing them love and helping them to feel included in a community where they can feel cared for and care about other people is one great way we can address the problem.

Certainly, it must be conceded that the most ridiculous ban is that of marijuana. It's literally a natural substance. It's not even made in labs or anything. It's just a plant. We have criminalized the husbandry, possession, and sale of plants. That is laughably ridiculous. Surely we shouldn't be in the business of dictating which plants people should be allowed to grow, harvest, and benefit from. But my opinion is that even the substances which are manufactured should also be legalized. Not just decriminalized but actually legalized. Allow pharmacies to carry them, just like we do with tobacco products. That will make it safer for people who are getting drugs from sometimes sketchy sources, which may be made imperfectly or intentionally laced with other substances unbeknownst to the buyer. When the 21st Amendment was passed, organized crime lost the financial benefits from bootlegging. In exactly the same way, we'd be taking money from the crime industry by legalizing drugs, the sale of which funds many crime organizations.oooi