How to Eliminate Drug Murders and much Criminal Violence?
Regulate Drugs rather than Criminalize their Use

Illegal drugs have caused a significant increase in violence. In the years since Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala hardened their stance on illegal drugs, their violent death body counts have risen dramatically.

Criminals make vast profits from drugs, and they compete for that profit. Since their activity is illegal, resolving disputes using the legal system is denied. So disagreements among criminals can only be settled violently. Eliminate the profit provided by drugs being illegal, and you'll also eliminate many violent deaths.

The Economist estimates that drug convictions account for almost half of American prisoners in federal jails. Yet the “war on drugs” is being convincingly won by the powerful criminals who deal in drugs, not by the government!

Both Colorado and Washington State understand these issues and have legalized marijuana for adult use. However, the Federal government continues to ignore the 10th Amendment guaranteeing the supremacy of States' laws by pursuing its unconstitutional drug laws, see earlier article on drugs and the 10th in this series.

Illegal Drugs Ruin Many Lives

Illegal drugs ruin enormous numbers of lives, throw enormous numbers in prison, and cause immense numbers of gun deaths. Drug users spend approximately $60 billion dollars a year, according to U.S. government estimates. Wouldn't it make sense to discourage people from starting on drugs in the first place?

The enormous profits to be made from drugs provide significant motivation to lure young children into using them. Remove the profit and then the criminal incentives to encourage children to try drugs in the first place would also vanish.

When the laws making alcohol illegal were eliminated, the murder rate in America went down, and politicians had a new source of income - alcohol taxes. The lesson is clear, much the same would happen when drugs are regulated instead of illegal.

The War on Drugs has Failed

Image - billions of dollars wasted on the war on drugs

Click to Expand

Image courtesy of
www.nbcnews.com/id/37134751/ns/us_news-security/t/us-drug-war-has-met-none-its-goals/

More than forty years after US President Nixon declared the war on drugs, hoping it would result in a drug-free world, the drug war is now widely seen as un-winnable. The UN estimates there are around 250 million drug users worldwide, and illegal drugs are now the world's third largest industry, estimated to approach half a trillion dollars - $500,000,000,000 - a year, all un-taxable, all in the hands of criminals.

Drugs finance fundamentalist Islamic terrorists and their murderous agenda of converting or eliminating every non-believer to Islam. Such naïve believers misinterpret the Koran's essential message of love as instructing them to murder to create an Islamic-only world.

According to many luminaries, including former US President Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and many other household names, the war on drugs is a total failure.

It's difficult to appreciate why some people are so adamant they are right. They ignore the abundant evidence of drug war failure all around them, and prefer to self sabotage by wanting yet more effort into the war on drugs. They forget the lessons the USA learned from alcohol prohibition many years ago.

Eliminate the Incentive to Start Children on Illegal Drugs!

Somebody once persuaded each and every drug user to try a drug for the first time. Yet once you eliminate the profit motive, you remove that person's ability to make money from such persuasion. Without the profit motive, fewer people will start on drugs.

According to some estimates, illegal drugs are now one of the most lucrative industries in the world, funneling a staggering amount of money to criminals. Removing the sky-high illegal profits would also lower crime since users would commit less burglaries to obtain money for their drug habit. The evidence comes from countries such as Portugal and Denmark who have decriminalized drugs.

Why Continue Failing Policies?

Police, Bankers, and Drug Cartels All Say No!

Click to Expand

Is it time to end the War on Drugs?
Police, Banks, Drug Cartels all say NO!

Assuming drug ban advocates know how to examine facts critically, there seem to be few reasons to continuing the war on drugs. One alarming speculation is that those recommending such failed policies benefit in some way from the illegal drug trade themselves. Could any of our bureaucrats or politicians have been corrupted?

Another is that they have suffered with someone close using drugs and, ignoring the evidence, think that even stricter laws would be effective. They ignore the conclusive strength of the profit motivation, as well as the obvious fact that drugs were already illegal when that close someone initially got hooked on drugs.

Maybe they are being right, they have too much ego invested in their current anti-drug stance to allow themselves to explore the evidence rationally, admit to being wrong and then changing their minds.

Some assume they already know the solution. Why waste energy on exploring the facts when you already know them? as Mark Twain succinctly explains below.

Do they Confound Belief with Critical Thinking?

Others confound believing with critical thinking. Could Britain's Piers Morgan be in this category? He has attempted career suicide by his vituperative emotional attacks on his guests. He vehemently defended what he just believes rather than look objectively at the facts to see if he needs to change his mind.

Yet another alternative is they confuse good intentions with effective strategies. Despite the natural but incorrect assumption, do they actually think these two are the same? Vehement denials and emotional attacks are indicative here. Yet more evidence of government failure and a government-controlled education system which teaches what to think rather than how to think.

There seem to be many willing to ignore the mountains of incontrovertible empirical evidence. Do any of those who continue to insist the drug war would work with even more effort actually profit from drugs remaining illegal? This conclusion may be cynical but once you eliminate the impossible, the improbable is all that remains!

Your Next Step

You want your family safe and protected from criminal assault. Learn how to persuade hardened criminals to fear for their safety and leave town. Enjoy the whole story here:

Dramatically improve your family's safety

Realize neither the police nor the government have any legal duty to protect you [say the US Court of Appeals!]

Convince your neighbors to take responsibility for their own protection

Slash the crime rate for your whole community

Protect you and your neighbors' vulnerable family, children and property with a Universal Gun Ownership Law. Find out how with this dynamic Special Report: The Right Response. Available for a limited period at a special introductory price. Get it today - right now - only $4.97!

The Right Response? How to reduce violent crime and guarantee your safety!

Food for Thought

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what
you know for sure that just ain't so."

- Mark Twain (1835-1910), gifted American author, incisive political outlook, brilliant humor!

"I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."

- Professor Walter E. Williams, PhD; influential African-American economist; John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University

The original version of this article was published at articlesbase.com

http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/what-else-would-decrease-the-high-american-murder-rate-part-14-in-the-right-response-6556229.html

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net. All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so share this widely!

< - previous article | next article - >

> There are more to enjoy in this series: