2 Responses to “The Racial Impact of the Drug War”
LR
Tom, you’ve been in Washington a while. Will this issue ever receive serious attention on the national political stage? Or are we doomed to an eternity of vague moralizing? Even after Raich–a rather clear case of the literal evil of federal prohibition, I think–the controversy soon vanished again from the airwaves and papers. Even after a million micro-kerfuffles on Obama and race…barely a blip.
I think that we must consider the struggle over this issue as a long run struggle. The “War on Drugs” (really, on drug users, in particular, and on civil society generally) is one of the most dangerous government policies in existence today. It is a moral imperative that it be stopped. But whoever raises the issue is immediately smeared as “in favor of drug abuse,” rather than as in favor of liberty, responsibility, and the end to a policy that has led to criminality, violence, and enormous loss of life. So few people have the courage to take the issue up, even when they fully understand how destructive the drug war is. Courage, my friend. Courage.
Tom, you’ve been in Washington a while. Will this issue ever receive serious attention on the national political stage? Or are we doomed to an eternity of vague moralizing? Even after Raich–a rather clear case of the literal evil of federal prohibition, I think–the controversy soon vanished again from the airwaves and papers. Even after a million micro-kerfuffles on Obama and race…barely a blip.
I think that we must consider the struggle over this issue as a long run struggle. The “War on Drugs” (really, on drug users, in particular, and on civil society generally) is one of the most dangerous government policies in existence today. It is a moral imperative that it be stopped. But whoever raises the issue is immediately smeared as “in favor of drug abuse,” rather than as in favor of liberty, responsibility, and the end to a policy that has led to criminality, violence, and enormous loss of life. So few people have the courage to take the issue up, even when they fully understand how destructive the drug war is. Courage, my friend. Courage.