The editors of the National Review break the ice and reach the decision that for three generations dared not speak its name; the “War on Drugs is Lost”:
We have found Dr. Gazzaniga and others who have written on the subject persuasive in arguing that the weight of the evidence is against the current attempt to prohibit drugs. But NATIONAL REVIEW has not, until now, opined formally on the subject. We do so at this point. To put off a declarative judgment would be morally and intellectually weak-kneed.
Things being as they are, and people as they are, there is no way to prevent somebody, somewhere, from concluding that “NATIONAL REVIEW favors drugs.'’ We don’t; we deplore their use; we urge the stiffest feasible sentences against anyone convicted of selling a drug to a minor. But that said, it is our judgment that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with police states. We all agree on movement toward legalization, even though we may differ on just how far.
The NR’s current editors- Buckley Jr, Szosz et al - weigh in on the subject.
The big point: the War costs us more in terms of lives, civil liberties and diversion of effort from dealing with addiction than it could ever be worth. In the past forty years, more people have died in the War on Drugs - 90-odd deaths from turf wars and habit-feeding robberies for every one to overdose - than died in Vietnam and Korea, and we’re farther from “victory” now than ever. The “war” has taken much of Central America down with it; the turf wars for those feeding America’s jones kill many more people in Mexico than are dying in Iraq or Afghanistan right now. And the worst part is, allof that sacrifice - every neighborhood destroyed, everyone killed in every botched drug-mugging, every cop caught in every gang-war crossfire, every broke dealer murdered for falling behind on his payments or tripping his capo’s suspicions - is in vain. Every one. None of them will lead to anything better.
It’s time to look into ending this particular “war”.
Cross-posted at Shot in the Dark. Comments welcome.
