William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman, two of the most respected conservative intellectuals of the late 20th century, were among the drug war's high-profile critics. These great thinkers did not argue that recreational drug use should be celebrated -- far from it! Instead, they argued that the prohibition of drugs was causing far greater harm to society than drug abuse itself. And they were right.
They absolutely were right. The government spends vast sums of money and uses the War on Drugs as a power for incredible invasion into our privacy and financial life beyond even what the IRS can do. The War on Drugs funds gangs and terrorism and destabilizes governments across the world. And yet it doesn't work, we have the drugs. The war is unwinnable because the more successful it is the more it drives up prices and the more ruthless drug cartels become to get the higher profits. You'd think Republicans who claim to get economics would get that fact. But it stands in the way of their precious ownership of our bodies campaign they wage while telling us they want smaller government.
What a travesty, and we do it to ourselves on purpose.
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