This is a guest article by D. Alan Johnson, his latest book Asgaard explores the role of US military Contractors in far flung parts of the globe. D. Alan Johnson is well equipped to write not only Asgaard, but also this article. He is what he writes about! Since the mid 1980’s he has been a private military contractor – Simon
A persistent argument brought against law enforcement and government is that the prohibition of drugs invites corruption. I have seen so many corrupt politicians and enforcement officers in my career that there can be no argument.
However, the next step is to claim that if we legalized drugs, the corruption would end, the government would collect taxes, and all would be right with the world. This is a simplistic view of the harm drugs do to society, the historical success of legalization, and the human attraction to an easy buck.
In my early years as an officer with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, I was convinced of the need for the legalization of drugs. Being a pilot on surveillance aircraft monitoring smuggling, and as an analyst, I, along with many of my colleagues studied the implications and war-gamed the implementation of legalized drugs. We viewed the societies that have never prohibited drugs or have repealed that prohibition. After these studies and the presentation of several papers, I changed my mind about legalization.
The first reason is that drugs destroy individuals. Yes, alcohol and tobacco also harm many users, but the magnitude of addiction and the health problems of illegal drugs far surpass any downside of our legal substances. Narcotics and meth are so destructive that users are almost never able to hold down their jobs, and so addictive that users often turn to crime to buy a fix.
Even above that are the human costs. Crack, meth, heroin all call so strongly that most men and women abandon their morals, their responsibilities, their children, and even contact with lifelong friends, family, and spouses.
The next thing I became convinced about was that legalization has not been a success. Drugs, even when legal, destroy a society. China, Canada, and the United States had no prohibition of drugs in the 1800’s. Opium dens were common in all three countries. Most medicines in the US had some form of narcotic, heroin, codeine, or cocaine, as one of their ingredients. Consequently, the US struggled with a subculture of addiction. China was plagued with opium dens so pervasive that young men of all social strata would drop out of society. Seeing the evils, lawmakers in all three countries passed laws prohibiting narcotics.
Today, the Netherlands is the example brought up by both sides of the legalization argument. While each of us has strong opinions, we both lack concrete data. However, none can deny the coarsening of Dutch society since drugs and prostitution have been legalized. Normally hidden, drug addicts take over parks, and women advertizing lewd acts are displayed in store windows.
Perhaps the strongest argument against legalization is the human condition. Some men will only work at endeavors which are illegal. When one venture becomes legal, they will no longer work in that field, but will switch to something where they will find the “fast buckâ€. A study of families involved with marijuana smuggling in Roma, Texas illustrates this.
These families have been smuggling for at least three hundred years. They started with salt and cattle, moved cotton and arms in the Civil War, changed to gold when the new government in Mexico City imposed taxes, liquor during Prohibition, Freon out of Mexico and VCR’s in during the 1980’s, and now run marijuana and illegal aliens. Each time that the items smuggled went legal, these families switched to the illegal. They even have a codified system of taking turns which son will plead guilty for the rest of the family.
We see the same thing in the Netherlands now that prostitution has been legalized. The bad guys did not go good; they moved into white slavery. Every country that I have visited that has legalized prostitution has huge problems with women being forced into the sex trade against their will.
Another example of legalization is the gambling craze. Making gambling legal did not stop the gangsters from using Las Vegas and Atlantic City as bases for all types of corruption. Legal tobacco has not stopped the cigarette smugglers. Neither has legal liquor stopped the moonshiners. If we were to legalize and tax drugs, we would still see an illegal subculture smuggling the substance to get around the taxes.
Society must draw the line against men who would flaunt the law to earn the easy buck. Where we draw that line is a subject for discussion. None of us wants to see authorities quash free speech or freedom of religion. But if we continue to retreat from evil because we feel it is too difficult to enforce our laws, our civilization will become lawless.
Those contending that society “cannot legislate morality†need to visit a country like Angola where it is not really illegal to steal. In 1996 we turned in a man we caught stealing gasoline from our compound. The magistrate told us that it was our own fault that the locals were stealing our gasoline; we weren’t taking care of it well enough. The thief went free.
In our stand against evil, drugs are an important subset because of their acute ability to damage health, their addictive power, and their impact upon several other facets of society. While no one will say that our current enforcement system is good, I argue that in view of the dangers of hard drugs, the lack of success of legalization, and the predilection of man toward crime, that I our current laws are better than letting our civilization slide downward.
D. Alan Johnson
23 April, 2010
www.dalanjohnson.com
Drugs are going to be at the heart of our radio program tomorrow. Tune in, it likely will be an exciting round table discussion – Simon
5 users commented in " The Case Against Legalizing Drugs "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAre you seriously suggesting moonshining is as large of industry now as it was during prohibition?
Well – I see some very good arguments on both sides here. However, I’m not sure you can really argue that what happened in the 1800’s is really applicable to what would happen now or what happens in other countries. WE need to make laws that apply to our country. If prostitution were legalized, I would not make it legal to advertise it on a main street, in the window. But on the other side of the coin, would it increase other problems that were mentioned above? Its a very viable argument. Legalizing (certain) drugs I think has definite benefits. Why can’t we make laws to benefit this country? Oh right – we’d have to fill it full of pork to get anything passed. We waste so much money on someone that was arrested for having a dime bag, its rediculous. Why not decriminilize it and bring this country in some money! (oh – right….. again, we’d just be filling all the greedy politians and their crony’s pockets full of money) hmmmm. I’m torn on the subject.
What nobody ever ever discusses is the the sheer *_absurdity_* of the drug laws in the first place. What right do I have to tell my next door neighbor what he can or cannot smoke, inject in his veins, or even shove up his behind for that matter? Why should I give a flying fuck if he chooses to inject dog piss in his veins? As long as a person is an adult, and as long as he doesn’t hurt others, what right on earth does anybody have to interfere?
From the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” of the French Revolution:
Point 4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.
That was two hundred years ago. Sadly, instead of advancing toward even more freedom, the world has gone backwards, thanks to the United States and president Nixon in particular who is the one who started all this nonsense. The outcome has been and will continue to be rampant corruption of governments and police, and endless human suffering caused by incarcerations, family separations, crime, deaths, what have you, with no end in sight, and an abundance of drugs available everywhere anyway.
Yet the average asshole, whose powers of reasoning don’t extend beyond listening to what they say on the Idiot Box, shudders when anybody mentions that the most sensible thing to do is to legalize all drugs.
And the politicians, scared shitless of losing his vote, perpetuate the charade.
Freedom is not evil. Drug laws are evil.
The harm it would potentially happen is irrelevant..
What is relevant is the U.S. constitution..
The 9th amendment says that any power not delegated to the federal government should be left to the individuals or the states respectivley..
Remind me.. Where does it give the feds the pwoer to arbitrary schedule drugs? nowhere…
Now on the s tate level, I would be for outlawing meth, heroine, cocaine and crack..
But if the feds were to butt out, marijuana would be legalized fast, other drugs such as peyote, and mushrooms would follow..
I just find it amusing when prohibitionists zealots jump right to the HARD drugs for a reaction..
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