The Washington Post’s neo-prohibitionist movement
I enjoy Christopher Ingraham’s writing for the Washington Post. His Wonk Blog posts are data-heavy, which makes them interesting.
Like Ingraham, I have serious concerns about America’s long war on drugs. It strikes me as a losing battle, seeing as it is very hard to stop people from taking intoxicants that are so easy to produce. Worse, the war on drugs has encouraged law enforcement to go to militaristic measures to thwart the illicit drug trade. Like raiding individuals’ homes, sometimes wrongly— then shooting their dogs and refusing to give back their property. And even killing innocent people. Intoxicants are like any other product, in that markets exist for them. Prohibition fosters illicit markets, which are highly profitable and therefore very violent. (Drug gangs slaughter other drug gangs to control market-share. Fast food companies do not.)
