The Dallas Morning News editorial board published a typically misguided rant on the “hidden costs” of recreational drug use.
Quoting DMN=
In Colombia, guerrillas and paramilitary thugs are vying for control of vast swaths of the countryside where base ingredients of cocaine and heroin are grown. They are tearing up families, killing adults and turning children into warriors – all for drug money.
The Taliban in Afghanistan – the same group that hosted al-Qaeda – is using opium profits to fund its insurgency.
In Mexico, rival cartels are turning entire cities into war zones. Drug-related violence is at record highs.
Closer to home, the tattooed gang members rampaging through Oak Cliff and East Dallas also are the local enforcers and street distributors for major drug cartels. They make “cheese,” sinsemilla marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine available to students in our local schools and universities.
Still seem like harmless, victimless good fun?
Think again – after washing the blood from your hands
Let me tell you why you can step away from the sink and put down the blood washing soap.
Everything DMN points out are negative externalities of prohibition. By choosing Prohibition, we have chosen everything DMN wants you to feel bad about.
Do you really think that the Taliban can suppy heroin better than Pfizer? Do Columbian guerilla armies sell us laptops or organic milk? Do we have Oak Cliff gangs enforcing alcohol and tobacco turf and selling beer to kids?
Of course not. If we had legal markets for drugs all of those entities would be put out of business.
The government that enforces prohibition has blood on its hands. The government chose these criminal groups as our nation’s drug suppliers. The government also kills innocent citizens and incarcerates millions of Americans to fight the failed drug war.
This misguided guilt trip from DMN is typical of those who do not understand that Prohibition is the cause of our nation’s drug problems, foreign and domestic.
Guilt trips will not convince Americans to quit using drugs. We can only win the drug war by ending Prohibition. Until then, spare me the moral outrage.
Labels: War On Drugs