How to stop the drug wars

The problem with these kinds of articles is that they make the assumption that governmental drug fighting efforts are sincere. They probably aren't that sincere to their original intent now. Like most other government agencies, they start out with some presumption of sincerity, but then the old case of "the means becomes the ends" sets in. Reminds me of what Tom Wolfe meant when the lawyer character in Bonfire of the Vanities labelled the line of criminals waiting at the back of the courthouse as "chow."<p>The DEA will probably never go away, because it keeps people employed for one thing, and helps large pharmaceutical companies keep small pharm companies (makers of class II, III drugs with expired patents) from building a legitimate enough business that would help these smaller companies spend money on new drug research. Keeping drugs illegal is good business; it has less to do with discouraging illicit drug use.

Just a thought...<p>You know, I can't help but be reminded of the movie Layer Cake ( <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375912/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375912/</a> ), where the main character, a drug dealer kingpin, points out that drugs will be legal some day, and that people like him are just ahead of the curve as far as making a business out of giving people the drugs they want.<p>Thinking of it from this angle, if drugs were to indeed be legalised (as in, like cigarettes - not just decriminalised), the possibilities for innovation, product development, etc, would be pretty enormous. You want to build a product that people just keep coming back to? Here it is.<p>Sure, eventually, this market would become like food or, at best, cigarettes - with smaller margins, and not much innovation. But it would take a while, I imagine, and in the meantime, there would be a lot of potential innovations, experimentations, etc.<p>Just a thought...

My advice would be to stop referring to it with the loaded term "war" and start thinking about dealing with it in the fine grained way a problem with this many aspects requires. Using "war" for drugs both dilutes the term when applied to real horrible armed conflict and turns what should be a measured response to a sociological problem into a comic book farce with swat teams armed like soldiers busting in on teenagers at parties.<p>Most of the problems come from the comical binary approach currently applied that treats pot the same as PCP.

Interesting article. I'll probably get downmodded for saying this, but I do believe that this being #1 brings HN one step closer to reddit.

The thing that irks me most about discussions on the internet like this regarding the illegal drug trade, is that this is just "intellectual" conversation to most. People are dying and families are being destroyed. Blame the system, argue that it's broken, or whatever, but don't even consider taking individual responsibility, which would start with saying no.

I have spent a decent amount of time in and around the drug community and one thing I've noticed is that many drug dealers are actually very bright and talented individuals. Were it a legal product, they would be entrepreneurs. There are many aspects of accounting, logistics, and supply chain management that go into being a continually successful purveyor of recreational drugs. It's a fickle industry - made significantly worse by the fear of legal repercussion. Unfortunately, things being how they are, some are forced to continue this risky lifestyle because legitimate jobs are getting harder and harder to come by and "weed dealer" doesn't really look that good on paper. Now I'm not saying dealers are these savants backed into a corner by an oppressive government, but the organization of drug trade is actually deeply interesting, if only because it is illegal.<p>Just my .02

As long as as an employer, I could test my employees for drug use, and as long as as a patient, I can be assured that my doctor is not a crack addict, and as long as as a driver and a pedestrian, I can be somehow assured that no one is driving or crossing the street while intoxicated, I'm for the legalization.

The article doesn't go far enough! Governments should take the confiscated drugs they seize and give the stuff to addicts for free, with counselling to try and kick the habit. Think about it - devalue the product to the point the illegal importers can't make a profit at worst and not able to pay their suppliers at best and the illegal trade will fade away. Also, if addicts can get it for free, then there is less incentive to commit other crimes to fund the habit.<p>Skizz

Legalization though probably not the ideal solution, makes sense. There are some decent examples out there today: ala. Amsterdam. Steven Levitt's book Freakonomics, does a great job of illustrating the elemental business like structures behind the crack-cocain outfits in Chicago; sprinkle in a bit of legitimate legal leeway and you have the potential of creating a regulated industry that pays taxes. The economy is in the gutter; every bit helps?

Spoiler: Legalize drugs.

This is an academic view of the problems. The reality is different in each region, even in each block.<p>After Soviet Union was collapsing, we've got this so-called free market (free from a regulation of the goverment). First, we got unlimited supply of the low-quality alcohol, after some failed attempts of the soviet goverment to combat drunkness.<p>The result? Almost 1/5 of population were died in 10 years with direct or indirect involvement of alcohol consumption. The cases of the mental degradation and illness were never counted. But the next generations afrer looking at their animal-like fathers and mothers, at least trying to avoid the booze.<p>The heroine problem is almost the same, but more brutal and fast-going. After you saw several tens of the lethal cases you will try to stop, and even with some success.<p>I think (as a person who actually did it) that the most effective solution is the natural one - when you saw the results, you, sooner or later, will try to figure out the cause.<p>And what people or goverment can do is to show the results to the youths, to educate them, because they just trying to imitate an adults - in our case - tired and hopeless creatures, who become happy (actually just relaxed) for very short periods of time with booze and sigarettes.<p>And be sure, there never was a problem to get any stuff among a low-income and uneducated. And never will.

Here is another way: line up all the drug dealers and shoot them.<p>Then line up all the drug users and shoot them.<p>Problem solved.<p>(I am being serious.)