The Lessons Of Prohibition

by Radley Balko - December 3, 2008 - Reason

Eliot Ness and his colleagues raided supply lines, manufacturing hubs, and warehouses, but alcohol consumption was still legal. You didn't have armed-to-the-teeth cops breaking down the doors of private homes the way they do now for people suspected of consensual drug crimes. During prohibition, doctors could prescribe alcohol as medication. Today, federal SWAT teams storm medical marijuana clinics and terrorize their patients, thanks to the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Gonzales v. Raich, which allowed the federal government to prevent a dying woman from possessing medical marijuana, solely for her own use, to treat the symptoms of her illnesses, even though the voters of California had determined that she should be left alone.

The conservative movement has much to answer for, not in the appropriateness of their goals, but in the contemptible unintended consequences of their tactics. This issue of the war on drugs is a perfect example of the intolerance, lack of Christian charity, blind stupidity, stubbornness of its supporters and total failure of the process used in the war to accomplish the intended goals.

It is amazing to me the number of conservatives who get irrational in their condemnation of anyone who dares to question their support of this war. If you dare question the results of this program they condemn you as evil and refuse to discuss the issue further. It is as dogmatic as any "politically correct" attitude of the extreme left.

A person cannot discuss the failure of this process if they expect to be able to continue to have any say in the Republican Party. Question the war on drugs and you are banned.