Today’s Wall Street Journal has an op-ed piece by William Bennett and Joe Califano advocating further escalation of the war on drugs.

Don Boudreaux assails their logic in this letter:


Dear Editor:

Joe Califano and Bill Bennett - the éminences grises of American scolds and 
busybodies - predict that if drugs were legalized "needle parks" would sprout up 
like weeds throughout America, each one possibly becoming "a grotesque tourist 
attraction" ("Do We Really Want a 'Needle Park' on American Soil?" July 1).  
Let's assume that this prediction is accurate.  And let's generously grant also 
the accuracy of many of Califano's and Bennett's other dire predictions.

We must still ask, as compared to what?  The "what" includes not only whatever 
difficult-to-measure (but easy to fantasize about) blessings we enjoy as a 
result of the 'war on drugs'; the "what" includes also the current observable 
reality of this 'war.'

Would needle parks be worse than the lethal violence that is an artifact of the 
drug war?  (Note that salespeople and delivery drivers for the likes of the 
Miller Brewing Co. and the Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery do not today, unlike 
alcohol suppliers during Prohibition, pack heat.)  Would the exercise by some 
people of the freedom to dissipate their lives with drugs be more wicked than 
the widespread practice of civil asset forfeiture - a lawless 'legal' maneuver, 
used mainly in the 'war on drugs,' by which state and local governments and 
Uncle Sam routinely steal the property of people merely SUSPECTED (and often 
never convicted) of committing drug offenses?

And would an increase in health problems caused by drug use be more lamentable 
than the infamous 'drug war' exception to the Fourth amendment - an exception 
that supplies to government officials the most dangerously addictive substance 
of all: power?

Anyone who answers 'yes' to these questions suffers hallucinations far more 
bizarre than those induced by LSD or anything else that can be purchased easily 
today in any city or town in America.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030