Fear is the tool of policymakers and advocates for many causes in our country.  Whether it is influencing people that electric garage doors kill children or that all cars should have airbags when an issue is brought to the fore in our society, fear is used to convince people that something must be done federally to right the wrong otherwise Western Civilization as we know it will vanish.  The Drug War is no different.  Statements are made by drug warriors to convince Americans that they must be given the authority to fight this crusade otherwise society will face dire consequences.  However, upon closer scrutiny, the claims made are more false then they are true.

Take the assertion that illegal drugs – marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, are big killers in the U.S.  The actual numbers say otherwise.  In a typical year, about 2,200 people die from cocaine related use.  Heroin claims the lives of 2,000 people annually and there has never been a recorded death attributed to marijuana use in the history of the U.S.  Of course, these deaths are related to direct use of the drugs and not inclusive of the violent crime attributed to them because of the Drug War.  Still, the numbers are very low compared to the rhetoric that illegal drugs kill big time.  Further, compare these puny numbers against 440,000 tobacco deaths and 80,000 alcohol fatalities and it is clear from a statist point of view that perhaps the federal government has banned the wrong substances.

Then, there is the misinformation that individuals who use marijuana or cocaine are more prone to violent behavior.  Through various studies alcohol is the only psychosocial substance that has been found to commonly increase aggression in those that consume it.  Think about it, we have all heard about the violent drunk, but has anyone ever heard of a violent stoner?  Violence is linked to illegal drugs primarily through drug deals gone bad, fighting over territory, and property crimes committed to raise drug money.  This is violence not caused by the consumption of illegal drugs, but caused because the drugs are illegal in the first place.  If we ended the War on Drugs then almost all violence related to illegal drugs would disappear.

Lastly, there is the claim that without strong drug laws our society would become a collection of dope fiends and drug addicts.  Well, alcohol is legal and the U.S. has not become a society of drunkards and loafers.  There is evidence that the forbidden fruit theory has had a negative effect on drug use in the U.S.  That is, because drugs are illegal more people use them here.  The World Health Organization conducted a survey of 17 countries and found that the U.S. had the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use.  42.4 percent of respondents in the U.S. admitted having used marijuana; the results were similar for cocaine with the U.S. leading the world by large margins for both drugs.  By comparison, in the Netherlands, where possessing and using small amounts of pot is legal, only 19.8 percent of respondents have used marijuana.  So, the U.S. which has some of the most punitive drug laws leads in drug users compared to the Netherlands which has a much more lenient approach to drugs.  This seems to refute the drug warriors’ claim that we need tough drug laws to prevent society from becoming overrun by drug users.

The next time politicians and advocates for the Drug War grandstand about more reasons for its existence, Americans need to be cynical and check the facts.  Chances are, like killer electric garage doors and lifesaving airbags, the reasons are just more examples of fear tactics to legitimate their cause.  

Kenn Jacobine teaches History and English for the American International School of Lusaka, Zambia.  Send him email at lovesliberty@gmail.com.

There is a war taking place at this moment on the U.S. border with Mexico.  No, the Mexicans have not invaded Texas in an effort to take back the territory lost in a previous conflict with Uncle Sam.  This time Mexican troops are fighting a different foe on behalf of their former adversaries.  This military conflict is sure to either hand Mexico a Vietnam like defeat or worst, just never end.  I am speaking of course about the War on Drugs, the international version.

Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon declared an all out war on drug cartels in his country in December 2006, there have been 4,152 drug-related murders in Mexico.  Homicides related to the drug war are up 47 percent just this year.  In May alone, almost 500 killings could be attributed to the government’s crackdown.  It is not just the “bad guys” that are dying.  Innocent bystanders who are at the wrong place at the wrong time are being mowed down as well as police, military, and government officials.  While the number of murders in the central regions of Mexico have decreased, there has been an increase in slaughters along the Texas border with Mexico in towns like Ciudad Juarez across the Rio Grande from El Paso.  These slaughters are the result of the Mexican government’s efforts to stop drug smuggling into the U.S. 

Now, it is one thing for a bad policy to have negative effects on the country that instituted it. It is another thing for that policy to wreak havoc on countries that frankly have more important things to do then hunt people that have been made hardened criminals by that very policy.  Mexico, like most nations in the world, is a developing country.  These countries can’t really afford to police traffic violators let alone well-armed gangsters.  It is easy to discuss throwing around billions of dollars in the U.S.  A few billion is a drop in the bucket in relation to our gross domestic product.  Additionally, the Federal Reserve can print that up with very few people realizing the inflationary consequences of the act.  However, for Mexico and other countries like her, billions of dollars is real money – usually extracted through direct taxes or the printing of new currency with much higher resulting inflation than is experienced in the U.S. 

The bottom line is Mexico needs every dollar it has to develop infrastructure to build a stronger economy.  Instead of the Mexican government spending billions of dollars on a hopeless cause (the Drug War), that money could be better spent by entrepreneurs to expand plants or build new ones.  The resulting expanded jobs market in Mexico would divert Mexicans away from drug trafficking, alleviate our immigration problem, boost the Mexican economy, providing political stability on our southern border and lastly increase Mexico’s gross domestic product making her a more worthy trading partner.

Additionally, by ending the War on Drugs, countries that produce certain drugs like marijuana and cocaine could sell these substances to the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture pain killers and other medications.  This trade would provide an additional boon to the economies of developing nations.

In this presidential election year, Americans need to ask how long this endless war will continue.  After all, it has been waged in earnest for thirty-six years at a cost of over a trillion dollars and with the loss of countless lives.  It would be nice if foreign leaders like Felipe Calderon were to act in the best interest of their own countries and tell Washington what it can do with its senseless crusade.  But these leaders are few and far between and are at risk of direct U.S. military action (remember Manuel Noriega).  So, the onus rightly falls on the American voter to reverse the drug policy of the U.S. government.  You would think a war on our southern border would grab their attention on this issue.  Who would they vote for to solve the problem anyway - most of the “mainstream” candidates for Congress and both “mainstream” candidates for president support the War.  Here’s hoping the Mexican war does not spread into Texas and we see a non-mainstream vote in November.       

Kenn Jacobine teaches History and English for the American International School of Lusaka, Zambia.  Send him email at lovesliberty@gmail.com.