The War on Drugs -- A Peace Proposal

Abstract

After nearly 10 years of escalation, the government assault on illicit drugs has proved to be a costly failure. We have all been paying the price in misdirected resources, social tension, violent crime, ill health, compromised civil liberties, and international conflict.The war on drugs is, in effect if not in intention, a war on drug users. The federal budget for the control of illicit drugs has increased more than eightfold since 1981, and more than two thirds of the total is devoted to the enforcement of increasingly harsh criminal laws¹. These laws needlessly make criminals of at least . . .