America’s Drug Problem

America’s Drug Problem

Legalization of drugs, or decriminalization, means different things to different people. For some it means taking the crime or the money out of the drug business. For others it has become a rallying cry, in much the same way that “repeal prohibition” was sixty years ago—one that brings together people from across the political spectrum, with very different views about what is wrong with our current policy of drug prohibition, and very different notions about what should replace it. Consider the wide range of prominent individuals who have expressed support for  legalization. On the one hand are conservatives such as Milton Friedman, George Shultz, William F. Buckley, Gary Becker, and others associated with the Chicago school of law and economics, as well as the editorial boards of the Economist and many other conservative newspapers in Europe.

On the other hand are Democrats and liberals such as Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as a number of leading black politicians—Kurt Schmoke, the mayor of Baltimore; Carrie Saxon Perry, the mayor of Hartford, Connecticut; and state legislative figures from New York, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere—even one Congressman who dared to say the word decriminalization shortly before he retired—George Crockett of Michigan, a former judge.