by Matt Simon, NH Common Sense

The next U.S. president will preside over the 40th anniversary of our nation’s so-called “War on Drugs.” Now that this failed and failing policy is over the hill, our Send The Right Message! campaign intends to give it a good push.

At this point, there are essentially two sides to this debate. One side insists that federal drug policy should never be seriously studied or discussed, and our side believes government should be willing to reconsider its options when faced with compelling evidence of a policy failure. If federal Drug Prohibition (a.k.a. the “War on Drugs”) is a wise policy that can withstand serious public scrutiny, its supporters should be willing and able to defend it in a free and open debate.

Prohibition sustains itself by stifling public debate over policy. Many of our best scholars have been making the case against Prohibition for decades, but still the subject has not been seriously reconsidered at the federal level. Instead, the prohibitionists have been deflecting criticism by drowning our children with propaganda and intimidating them with fear of arrest and incarceration. The prohibitionists’ public relations strategy consists of (a) slinging propaganda and (b) accusing anybody who questions the propaganda of “sending the wrong message to our kids.”

People who want to stay the course in the “War on Drugs” may feel they are doing the right thing by stifling dissent, but what message does that send to our kids? That the government is always 100% right and should never be questioned? Regardless, the intended messages of Prohibition certainly haven’t been effective. Our nation has a more severe drug abuse problem today than it did when President Richard M. Nixon declared what has become America’s longest war.* A lot of our most insightful social critics on both right and left have argued that these expensive, anti-liberty policies do a lot more harm than good, but nevertheless, somehow we have allowed drug policy to become a forgotten issue in our political system. This must change, and it must change before our country holds another major election.

As freedom-loving Americans, it's time for us to openly and honestly reconsider the failed policies of Prohibition and suggest reasonable, responsible alternatives.

At NH Common Sense, we have to ask (for example), why do drug warriors continue to insist on targeting marijuana users?

We also have to wonder aloud, why aren't states allowed to set their own policies regarding marijuana? Our House of Representatives here in New Hampshire nearly passed a medical marijuana bill this year, but many legislators told us "marijuana policy is a federal issue, not a state issue." We have to explain that states are supposed to be laboratories of democracy, and that the U.S. Constitution and American history are on our side, not the side of the prohibitionists.

The facts are in, and it's clear that he prohibition of cannabis has never been good for our country. It's time for us to start asking the right questions, time to Send the Right Message!


*At least, that’s what Steven B. Duke and Albert C. Cross called it in their 1993 book America’s Longest War: Rethinking our Tragic Crusade Against Drugs. If anything, their conclusions are even more obvious and more thoroughly substantiated today, 14 years later.