Prohibition: A Failed Means of Substance Control
Ostin Kirkpatrick "One minute after midnight on january 1 1920 it became illegal to buy sell manufacture or transport any alcoholic beverage within the United States and its Territories." (Daniel Cohen 7) This day marked the beginning of the Alcohol Prohibition in the United States of America. This is not the only prohibition that has taken or is taking place in America, there is also the anti-drug prohibition that is still a problem to this day. The use of prohibition is not only unconstitutional, but is a failed means of substance control, wastes money, and actually increases usage of the banned substance and organized crime. The damage done to the Economy with prohibition is made clear in the following quote. This is a quote from an article by the American Civil Liberties Union on the topic of drug prohibition. "Criminal prohibition, the centerpiece of U.S. drug policy, has failed miserably. Since 1981, tax dollars to the tune of $150 billion have been spent trying to prevent Columbian cocaine, Burmese heroin and Jamaican marijuana from penetrating our borders." (Against Drug Prohibition) This quote gives the exact dollar figure to how much we have been wasting on the war on drugs. The …show more content…
"Those who benefit the most from prohibition are organized crime barons, who derive an estimated $10 to $50 billion a year from the illegal drug trade. Indeed, the criminal drug laws protect drug traffickers from taxation, regulation and quality control. Those laws also support artificially high prices and assure that commercial disputes among drug dealers and their customers will be settled not in courts of law, but with automatic weapons in the streets." (Against Drug Prohibition) This shows that it increases crime and the only ones who benefit from it are the criminals at the top of the pyramid so to
Ostin Kirkpatrick "One minute after midnight on january 1 1920 it became illegal to buy sell manufacture or transport any alcoholic beverage within the United States and its Territories." (Daniel Cohen 7) This day marked the beginning of the Alcohol Prohibition in the United States of America. This is not the only prohibition that has taken or is taking place in America, there is also the anti-drug prohibition that is still a problem to this day. The use of prohibition is not only unconstitutional, but is a failed means of substance control, wastes money, and actually increases usage of the banned substance and organized crime. The damage done to the Economy with prohibition is made clear in the following quote. This is a quote from an article by the American Civil Liberties Union on the topic of drug prohibition. "Criminal prohibition, the centerpiece of U.S. drug policy, has failed miserably. Since 1981, tax dollars to the tune of $150 billion have been spent trying to prevent Columbian cocaine, Burmese heroin and Jamaican marijuana from penetrating our borders." (Against Drug Prohibition) This quote gives the exact dollar figure to how much we have been wasting on the war on drugs. The …show more content…
"Those who benefit the most from prohibition are organized crime barons, who derive an estimated $10 to $50 billion a year from the illegal drug trade. Indeed, the criminal drug laws protect drug traffickers from taxation, regulation and quality control. Those laws also support artificially high prices and assure that commercial disputes among drug dealers and their customers will be settled not in courts of law, but with automatic weapons in the streets." (Against Drug Prohibition) This shows that it increases crime and the only ones who benefit from it are the criminals at the top of the pyramid so to