The Drug War as Political Theater

Most people think that drug prohibition laws were a response to social problems caused by out-of-control drug use.  The real story is that these laws came from political zealotry. Most of the problems with drugs today—crime, decadence and swelling prison populations—are largely the result of prohibition laws.

The politics behind drug prohibition began when early 20^th century political leaders linked drugs to minorities. Cocaine was linked to Negroes who were said to commit deviant sex acts under the influence. Marijuana was linked to Hispanics and was said to cause insanity. And opium was believed to be corrupting white women, who then desired black men for sexual purposes. Protestant missionaries in China wanted anti-opium legislation for the same reasons they wanted anti-alcohol legislation:  intoxicated peoples tend to be less receptive to the teachings of Christ.  Finally, politically influential corporations like DuPont and Hearst viewed hemp as a threat to their bottom lines.

Eventually prohibition laws came under the authority of the United Nations’ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961).  This treaty shifted the conversation from race-baiting to concerns about health. Advocates of the drug war began to see themselves as guardians of public health.

The theatrics only got worse. If you set yourself up as a guardian, you have to view your charges as helpless, sick or both. This is why we hear fantastic claims that drug abuse is a brain disease and that drugs overtake the human will to resist them. That many people behave that way is true enough, but it has less to do with drugs than with human opportunism. Addicts behave the way they do because they can. They are endlessly enabled by being told that they can’t control themselves and by the many social programs available to them (welfare, rehab, medical care, disability payments, etc.)

In my new book, Blowing Smoke: Rethinking the War on Drugs without Prohibition and Rehab (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), I suggest that the solution to the drug problem is to legalize drugs for adults and let people bear the consequences of their own behavior. If we took these bold steps we’d see a transformation in how people use drugs and we’d silence some of the histrionic fits coming from the political class.