Legalization of Drugs? Government Would Screw It Up
For the last 10 years or so, I've been moving ever closer to the libertarian position that the sale and consumption of illegal narcotics should be legalized....or at least "decriminalized", whatever the hell the difference is. I arrived at this perspective upon recognizing the futility of prohibitions. Laws imposed by the state cannot overcome the laws of supply and demand. When a good or service is in demand, there will always be a way to deliver the good or service to consumers....either through regulated commerce or a through a black market controlled by organized crime. In almost every situation, the latter scenario produces more devastating cultural and socioeconomic consequences than the former, and illegal drugs are no exception. Looking at a quarter century of ruinous consequences incurred through our narcotics prohibition, I had convinced myself that nothing could work less than the course we've been taking. Recently, however, after closely evaluating the way our government has handled other controversial legal products, I'm starting to lean back to the position that legalization of narcotics would end up being so mishandled by our government that it would bring about even more societal harm than the current dysfunctional prohibition.
To be clear, legalization done properly would still be the best option. If the distribution of narcotics was handled by licensed pharmacies that kept a closely-monitored paper trail on its customers, the street thugs and Latin American cartels that currently control the distribution of narcotics would go the way of the gangster bootleggers and speakeasies of the Prohibition against alcohol. Unfortunately, our government would be highly unlikely to be satisfied with this scenario. Its inability to resist the sugar daddies of the business communities and excessive "sin taxes" would sabotage the ability of a tightly-controlled legalization plan to play out.
Look at how legalization has impacted the drug of alcohol. And let's be honest.....alcohol is chemically identical to every drug that is current outlawed in America today, if arguably less immediately corrosive to the human mind and body. While lifting Prohibition has successfully eliminated the black market for alcohol, it has also wrested the control of sale and distribution of the product entirely into the hands of profit-driven entrepreneurs who promote the product through flashy and glamorous advertising. The stigma of alcohol consumption is virtually non-existent for adults and few of its consumers feel a sense of shame from drinking it, even in excess. If our government allows the same formula to ensue with narcotics of any kind, drug use would soar and commercially-distributed cocaine, heroin, and meth would be consumed with a diminishing stigma while our government looked the other way and counted the swelling revenues.
Even if legalization of drugs didn't lead to a free-market bonanza of destigmatized commercial narcotics, you can be sure that government would still feel the need to incur huge profits from the legalization the way it increasingly does from legalized tobacco products. Indeed, most people who support legalization of drugs usually follow up their initial statement of support with "...and then tax the hell out of them." This wouldn't work. The only way we'd snuff out the criminal element currently controlling the drug trade is sell these drugs at their market value. If we try to "tax the hell out of them," the Colombian and Mexican cartels along with urban street gangs will still be able to get the product to consumers cheaper than what the prices in legalized pharmacies could. The criminal element of our current prohibition would remain alive and well, rendering the entire progress of legalization meaningless. Cluelessly gluttonous state governments have already created a huge underground market for tobacco thanks to ever-rising cigarette taxes. Supersized taxes wouldn't work any better on drugs.
Looking at the ineffective consequences of our government's ham-handedness in controlling legalized products such as alcohol and tobacco, I have to concede that legalization of drugs would be a mistake. I'm confident that the pharmacy-controlled legalization plan I outlined above would work much better than what we're doing now, both in controlling usage and cutting off the head of the drug underground, but America's two-headed dragon of market-worship and regressive taxation would eventually muscle its way into any good idea, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
To be clear, legalization done properly would still be the best option. If the distribution of narcotics was handled by licensed pharmacies that kept a closely-monitored paper trail on its customers, the street thugs and Latin American cartels that currently control the distribution of narcotics would go the way of the gangster bootleggers and speakeasies of the Prohibition against alcohol. Unfortunately, our government would be highly unlikely to be satisfied with this scenario. Its inability to resist the sugar daddies of the business communities and excessive "sin taxes" would sabotage the ability of a tightly-controlled legalization plan to play out.
Look at how legalization has impacted the drug of alcohol. And let's be honest.....alcohol is chemically identical to every drug that is current outlawed in America today, if arguably less immediately corrosive to the human mind and body. While lifting Prohibition has successfully eliminated the black market for alcohol, it has also wrested the control of sale and distribution of the product entirely into the hands of profit-driven entrepreneurs who promote the product through flashy and glamorous advertising. The stigma of alcohol consumption is virtually non-existent for adults and few of its consumers feel a sense of shame from drinking it, even in excess. If our government allows the same formula to ensue with narcotics of any kind, drug use would soar and commercially-distributed cocaine, heroin, and meth would be consumed with a diminishing stigma while our government looked the other way and counted the swelling revenues.
Even if legalization of drugs didn't lead to a free-market bonanza of destigmatized commercial narcotics, you can be sure that government would still feel the need to incur huge profits from the legalization the way it increasingly does from legalized tobacco products. Indeed, most people who support legalization of drugs usually follow up their initial statement of support with "...and then tax the hell out of them." This wouldn't work. The only way we'd snuff out the criminal element currently controlling the drug trade is sell these drugs at their market value. If we try to "tax the hell out of them," the Colombian and Mexican cartels along with urban street gangs will still be able to get the product to consumers cheaper than what the prices in legalized pharmacies could. The criminal element of our current prohibition would remain alive and well, rendering the entire progress of legalization meaningless. Cluelessly gluttonous state governments have already created a huge underground market for tobacco thanks to ever-rising cigarette taxes. Supersized taxes wouldn't work any better on drugs.
Looking at the ineffective consequences of our government's ham-handedness in controlling legalized products such as alcohol and tobacco, I have to concede that legalization of drugs would be a mistake. I'm confident that the pharmacy-controlled legalization plan I outlined above would work much better than what we're doing now, both in controlling usage and cutting off the head of the drug underground, but America's two-headed dragon of market-worship and regressive taxation would eventually muscle its way into any good idea, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
posted by Mark at 4:30 PM
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