If the government bureaucracy can't keep drugs out of a contained, high-security prison, how could they ever dream of keeping them out of the U.S.? Does this imply that even if the U.S. became a police state, drugs would still not be kept out?
A better question: who cares?
If an individual does not have a right to ingest substances into his/her own body, does that individual own his/her body?
Afghan war lifts
Burma's opium trade While the war in Afghanistan has severely curtailed the world opium supply, the poppy fields of Burma have been reinvigorated to fill the gap. - Anthony C. LoBaido, January 16, 2002 [WorldNetDaily]
Colombia It is the same drug war that we experience here in America, only to a much worse degree. To truly understand the significance of this, one must understand that it is what we can expect here in the United States if the drug war escalation continues. - Loretta Nall, November 17, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
The Colombia Quagmire Colombia has been in crisis for nearly four decades, besieged by left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and well-funded drug producers. - Doug Bandow, July 2001 [The Future of Freedom Foundation]
Operation Juan Valdez Colombia's neighbors have already worried that increased U.S. involvement in fighting "narco-traffickers" will mean trouble on their side of remote, rugged borders. - Jeff A. Taylor, December 2000 [REASON]
Answers elusive in school raid Probe under way into drug sweep in Goose Creek where police drew guns, restrained students. - Lauren Leach, November 16, 2003 [The State]
Amnesia and the War on Drugs Drug war advocates can claim to support individual liberty and states’ rights, just as one can claim that idolatry and murder are compatible with the Decalogue. - Myles Kantor, April 25, 2002 [LewRockwell.com]
Raid a house, kick a dog, plug a suspect A family in Pueblo, Colo., is suing the DEA and the Colorado Bureau of Investigations after a no-knock raid resulted in their two sons being arrested and jailed despite the fact no drugs were found on the premises. - Joel Miller, February 22, 2002 [WorldNetDaily]
The War on Drugs as a Marxist Jihad "Today’s drug way tyranny cannot comport with the Founders’ design or a free society. Simply put, we own our bodies or we don’t." - Myles Kantor, July 18, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]
Winning a Battle, Losing the War "...marijuana decriminalization is just as likely to prolong the larger war on drugs." - Daniel McCarthy, June 7, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]
A question no one asked Ashcroft As recently as 1999, Ashcroft sponsored in the U.S. Senate a bill, S486, known as the "Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act," which would have allocated $25 million more to the federal government's insane war on drugs. Furthermore, the bill would have expanded the unconstitutional use of asset-forfeiture techniques that often end up victimizing innocent people. - Joseph Farah, February 8, 2001 [WorldNetDaily]
The War on Drugs Is a War on Liberty William S. Burroughs, the visionary novelist and social critic, warned that the United States government’s war on drugs was nothing more than the pretext for establishing in our culture a vast police apparatus that would forever supercede all our claims to privacy and property. - Scott Wilkerson, December 30, 2000 [LewRockwell.com]
Time to rethink America's drug war "America is fighting its war on drugs the way it fought the Vietnam War: as a deliberate no-win war. Not only are we not winning the war on drugs, we are surrendering our constitutional liberties in the process." - Dr. Chuck Baldwin, October 2, 2000 [WorldNetDaily]
Meth laws: bad data, bad outcomes "The two newest pieces of legislation, the Club Drug Anti-Proliferation Act bill in the House and the Ecstasy Anti-Proliferation Act in the Senate, seek to capitalize on the fears that the media has instilled in society in recent months." - Lucas Mast, June 22, 2000 [liberzine.com]
Just say no (to H.R. 2987) "True to Drug War form, meet the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act (HR 2987), currently working its way through the House of Representatives, which would make it a federal offense punishable by ten years in prison to 'directly or indirectly advertise for sale' drugs or drug paraphernalia." - Damon W. Root, June 9, 2000 [liberzine.com]
High on the Hill Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, and Utah Congressman Chris Cannon appear to be using the Bill of Rights as rolling paper, so they can light up and satisfy their addiction for power over our lives... - Harry Browne, May 27, 2000 [LibertyWire]
War on Drugs Costs American Lives and Liberties "The War on Drugs burns through innocent human lives, tax dollars and civil liberties more swiftly than a joint at a jazz festival." - Deroy Murdock, April 7, 2000 [CATO]
Drug-Courier Profiles: Or, Why We Are All Guilty Unrestricted power to search implies unlimited subjugation to government officials. Drug-courier profiles symbolize contemporary America's refusal to limit government or protect the individual. - James Bovard, November 1999 [The Future of Freedom Foundation]
Al Gore's son charged with pot possession The son of former Vice President Al Gore was arrested Friday night on a marijuana possession charge after police stopped the car he was driving for not having its headlights on. - December 20, 2003 [CNN.com]
Walters Lies Pile Up in Canada Diatribe Canadian laws are too soft, Walters said, as he urged Canadians he claimed had privately objected to Prime Minister Chretien's decriminalization bill to stand up and be counted. - October 10, 2003 [DRC.net]
Fleeced by Anti-Drug Ads Despite the Media Campaign's consistently poor performance, lawmakers are nonetheless set to refund the anti-drug ad program with a new five-year appropriation, which includes a $90 million funding boost! - Paul Armentano, June 16, 2003 [Mises]
The Drug War's Cooked Books Numbers never lie. Or do they? With government, it's simply a matter of who's keeping the books. - Paul Armentano, March 4, 2003 [Mises]
Asa’s Choice It is to the continuing oppression of America that Asa Hutchinson, a Southerner but not a Southern conservative, chooses tyranny instead of Thomas Jefferson’s truths. - Myles Kantor, August 11, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]
Politicians and media hype drug fears "Here's a rule in life: When things become political, they become messed up. Here's another rule: When things become fodder for media, they get even worse." - Joel Miller, August 31, 2000 [WorldNetDaily]
Congressional Relatives Receive 'Get Out of Jail Free' Pass "If you or a relative gets arrested on a drug charge, don't expect to pass Go or collect $200 -- unless you're the son or daughter of a U.S. congressman." - Harry Browne [LibertyWire]
Gun Control and the War on Drugs ...these two issues are more similar than many people might think. - Anthony Gregory, May 23, 2005 [The Future of Freedom Foundation]
Government Ghouls The sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship is being destroyed by federal bureaucrats, who have turned the drug war into a war on pain relief. - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, April 20, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Rush Limbaugh and Oxycontin Limbaugh's possible dealers may well be highly unsavory people, but to a pain patient desperate for treatment because his doctor is too scared of the government to prescribe it, their services are as valuable as those of the people running the nonprofit cooperatives supplying medical marijuana. - David Borden, October 3, 2003 [DRC.net]
The Right to Inhale The decriminalization of drugs would be a huge step in recognizing and protecting the individual rights and individual freedom of all in America. But only when Americans choose to re-assume personal responsibility for their lives instead of delegating this responsibility to government will we have a chance to achieve the full political freedom the Founding Fathers intended us to have. - David Holcberg, May 23, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine]
Learning from Peter McWilliams Peter McWilliams, who died on June 14, was more than an author and activist for libertarian causes. He was a teacher from whom we can learn to be better salesmen of liberty -- and even better people. - Harry Browne, June 17, 2000 [WorldNetDaily]
New England "Governors' Summit" on Drugs: Drug War Horse and Pony Show Inside, Protestors Outside Tandy, Walters and crew blamed the region's high rate of heroin use on insidious dealers using gaily painted bags and free samples to entice young users, but Tandy herself inadvertently pointed to the fundamental reason for the incontrovertible signs of increasing heroin use. "In Boston, you can buy what used to be a $40 bag for $4," she said noted, failing to draw the obvious conclusion that three-plus decades of war on drugs hadn't worked. - October 10, 2003 [DRC.net]
Has Uncle Sam lured your teenager into experimenting with drugs? A $1 billion anti-drug ad campaign that may have actually increased teen drug use shows that the Office of National Drug Control Policy is incompetent and should be abolished, say Libertarians. - released May 29, 2002 [LP Press Release]
The truth about drugs and terrorism Ending the War on Drugs would take the profit out of drug-trafficking and inflict a crippling financial blow on terrorist networks.- Steve Dasbach, March 6, 2002 [LP News]
Treating drugs with death Tough love kills, as the parents of Anthony Haynes found out when their 14-year-old son died last summer in a boot-camp-style drug-treatment program outside of Phoenix, Ariz. - Joel Miller, March 1, 2002 [WorldNetDaily]
Drugs and Thugs This "risk premium" means cocaine and heroin sell for 20 to 40 times as much as they otherwise would. Prohibition thus delivers to armed thugs a handy stream of revenue, which they can dip into by selling drugs or by taxing producers and traffickers. - Jacob Sullum, December 2001 [REASON]
Straight dope: Druggies worse than killers? "Sometimes fact is not actually stranger than fiction, just a lot stupider. Go no further than Columbus, Ga., and you'll see exactly what I mean." - Joel Miller, October 24, 2000 [WorldNetDaily]
Drunk with Power The case against court-imposed 12-step treatments. - Stanton Peele, May 2001 [REASON]
Cross-border dope war Americans have died in this battle, but so have Mexicans. Ask the families of slain Mexican law enforcement officers who were gunned down by drug lords if they think Americans have assumed their share of responsibility for consuming the illicit commodity that comes up from South America and moves through Mexico. - Ruben Navarrette Jr., February 21, 2001 [WorldNetDaily]
The drug war problem Two decades into an increasingly draconian war on drugs failure surround us. There is actor Robert Downey Jr., now facing another set of drug charges. There is Cameron Reagan, grandson of President Ronald Reagan, who was recently caught with marijuana and ordered into a drug management program.
Drug use by these and many others often has tragic consequences. But, jailing users creates even more disastrous results. - Doug Bandow, January 17, 2001 [TownHall.com]
Ads Won't Keep Kids off Drugs The problem of teenage drug use in America is not a problem of education -- teenagers know the risks. No amount of advertising is likely to stop a young person inclined to do so from turning to drugs. - Ryan H. Sager, August 13, 1998 [CATO]
Psychoactive Substances and Violence from Research in Brief, US Dept. of Justice - some Key Findings, "Of all psychoactive substances, alcohol is the only one whose consumption has been shown to commonly increase aggression." - Jeffrey A. Roth
Juries: Just say no ...the jury would have been fulfilling Jefferson's perceived role of the jury, holding the government to "the principles of its constitution." - Joel Miller, February 8, 2003 [WorldNetDaily]
When the drug war ends Some day soon, Americans are going to recognize the U.S. government's war on drugs has been a total, unequivocal disaster. - Joseph Farah, March 13, 2002 [WorldNetDaily]
Libertarian Party runs provocative anti-War on Drugs newspaper ads The Libertarian Party has launched a provocative advertising campaign that accuses Drug Czar John Walters and other pro-War on Drugs politicians of financially aiding terrorism. - February 26, 2002 [LP News]
The 13th Step With the movie Traffic, the debate over drug policy is clearly at an inflection point. - [REASON]
How To Win the War on Drugs What we need is an all-out drug war that targets the primary recruiting centers used by drug-pushers, the retail outlets of choice for the Colombian drug cartel: America’s tax-supported high schools. - Gary North, January 15, 2001 [LewRockwell.com]
7 ways to make your neighborhood safer "If you want your city, your country, and your children to be safe, we must end the insane war on drugs before it destroys us." - Harry Browne, October 21, 2000 [WorldNetDaily]
What if...marijuana was legal? A world where marijuana is legal is not the dark and dreary world of crime and rampant drug use that many imagine it to be. Actually, that world is the America we live in now, and the War on Drugs is doing nothing to abate it. - Anne Wills, March 13, 2000 [liberzine.com]
A Clear Head on Drugs A growing number of Americans are concluding that the drug war has been given a chance to work, but that it has failed. - Timothy Lynch, October 29, 1999 [CATO]
The Case for Legalization WHAT CAN BE DONE about the 'drug problem?' Despite frequent proclamations of war and dramatic increases in government funding and resources in recent years, there are many indications that the problem is not going away and may even be growing worse. - Ethan A. Nadelmann, 1988 [Lindesmith Center]
