Reply #5: Man, oh, man, our society has so many ways of fucking itself over-- [View All]

getting into stupid wars, giving everything away to the rich, stifling whistleblowers…

But for absolute and chronic heartlessness, ignorance and stupidity, nothing quite matches the drug laws.

2 fucken million people in prison, and probly half of them there for drug-related crimes, at a rough cost of $25,000 a year apiece.

Think of all the secondary crimes--burglaries, muggings, murders, etc. that grow out of the illegality of drugs.

I always point out to people a couple of simple facts from old-time Skinnerian rat psychology.

The first is that you can't eliminate a behavior by punishing it. (You can suppress it, you can make people-or rats-devious about how they enact the behavior, etc.) but the behavior persists, and will pop up again the minute you turn your attention somewhere else.

The second is that you CAN eliminate a behavior if you cut off the reward.

Legalization of drugs cuts off the rewards for the drug dealers.

And ya wanna get rid of meth? (Truly meth is a terrible drug.) Meth got big when we got more efficient at suppressing cocaine, driving up the price & decreasing its availability. Given a choice between meth & coke, everyone knows that Things Go Better With Coke. Just let them have the coke fer Chrissake. Make 'em register as addicts if you need to, but give people their drugs & quit fighting it. Yes, there is harm in drugs, but there is more harm to society, in many ways, from enforcing the drug laws.

Duh.