Over the past three decades crime, particularly violent crime, has decreased both in the United States and internationally. NYU School of Law’s, Brennan Center for Justice, estimated the United States to have its second-lowest crime-rate since 1990 in 2017. Despite this, the United States’ prison population has continues to balloon. The beacon of the free-world currently imprisons roughly 2.3 million people -- arresting its citizens at a higher rate than anywhere else. Those imprisoned often originate from extremely violent areas, far removed from the decline in crime which characterizes most of the country. These neighborhoods are typically dominated by both poverty and the presence of competing criminal gangs within the community. Law enforcement is rarely effective in properly maintaining order in these areas; with the worst neighborhoods often being neglected altogether, such as the Kensington section of Philadelphia, “the epicenter of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis”, infamous for its open-air drug markets and violence.
The wave of violence which has swept the U.S.-Mexico border and much of Latin America is also typified by a mixture of poverty and organized crime. From 2007-2014 164,000 Mexicans lost their lives in that country’s ongoing and brutal drug war. Thousands of Central Americans have sought asylum in the U.S., fleeing the violence and coercion brought upon them by the narco-gangs, which dominate the region.
To combat this, the United States spends more than $50 billion a year, having allocated over $1 trillion to fight the war on drugs since its inception. Despite the tremendous investment the U.S. has made in combating drug gangs around the world, there is one legal tool which has never been utilized by the government, yet has been historically proven an effective measure to combat this sort of violent crime. If adopted, this stratagem would effectively hamstring the most dangerous and violent criminal organizations in the world, provide increased security to areas ravaged by crime and violence, drastically reduce the prison population, and cripple what is estimated to be a $400 billion a year illicit industry. The action in reference is a full and complete end to drug prohibition.
What may seem counter-intuitive is actually the most effective measure to counteract the human suffering which illicit drugs cause. The economic engine driving nearly every violent criminal organization in the world is predicated on U.S. drug policy. No other legislation or law enforcement measure would be as much of a detriment to international criminality than drug legalization would be. No alternative source of income could hope to match that which narcotics provide criminals, shattering the economic model of criminal organizations from street gangs to international cartels, and curtailing the number of violent territorial disputes amongst them.
The subject of drug policy must be discussed soberly, in an environment removed from the moral panic and grandstanding which tend to dominate criminal justice reform. As a society we equate a justified disapproval of certain drugs and the very real harm they cause, with the necessity for legislation. Regardless of approval, or legislation, the narcotics industry will continue to some degree or another. The State policy of drug prohibition has only served to create an artificially lucrative and violent industry, disproportionally attracting the most impoverished and desperate.
A legal drug market would box-out the violent element while also producing a much safer and reliably consistent product, reducing the risk of overdosing. Our policy of prohibition effectively forces the most vulnerable members of society to traverse a dangerous landscape in which they are often subjected to violence, exploitation, and police harassment. With no regulatory system or mechanism for recourse, drug addicts have become American Harijan, an untouchable caste, neglected the institutional protections of mainstream society.
The legalization of drugs is not equivalent to a society endorsing the use of them. In fact, social pressure has been a proven and effective method of reducing the use of harmful substances as exemplified in the significant reduction in cigarette smoking the U.S. which has been seen in recent decades. However, it is not appropriate to enforce such disapproval through the barrel of a gun. Ending drug prohibition would not tie society’s hands in controlling dangerous narcotics, just its trigger fingers.
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