Drugs, Money, And The Pursuit Of Happiness

Most people think that drugs are illegal here in the US because drugs turn ordinary people into raging addicts and fiends. And while this is often true, I think that there's a huge piece of this story that most people are completely turning a blind eye to. Another thing that turns ordinary people into raging addicts and fiends is money, and the relationship between drugs and money here in the US is a matter of huge importance that's been hidden in plain sight for many years. Everybody knows that drug-dealers are fabulously wealthy because they can sell drugs in the US at enormously inflated prices while paying practically nothing for them in other countries. Everybody knows that the "War On Drugs" has not only failed to eradicate drugs from our market, but has made them just as available if not more available than ever to people that want them, even if those people are children. Everybody knows that the drug business in America is worth billions of dollars, but almost nobody knows where any of that money actually goes.

Here's what we need to realize first of all: drugs are not illegal because people abuse them, drugs are illegal because drug-dealers want them to be. Drugs are illegal because drug prohibition drives prices up. (And incidentally, as you will know if you've taken a basic course in economics, drives the supply of drugs up as well.)

Americans need to take a step back from the ill-informed radicalist anti-drug propaganda that's been forced down our throats since we were too young to know what drugs even are and start taking a look around us. The hysteria surrounding drug use in this country is a constructed one. I won't deny that drugs, both legal and illegal, are powerful and potentially addictive substances that are capable of tremendous harm. But this hasn't changed the fact that most people will still try them at some point in their lives, and there's a reason for that. Drugs can be fun, they can be beautiful, they can ease pain, give new perspectives, and provide valuable insight into the world around us. Drugs can be good, but are a powerful double-edged sword, and the issue of drugs must be met with caution and rationality.

Our current policies towards drugs are completely psychotic. Not only are drugs extremely available in mysterious and impure forms in a market where money in untraced, but even if we were to have reliable sources we would still be given no information about the drugs we're about to use except that they're bad and we shouldn't use them. Pharmaceuticals and drugs with limited legality are often addressed with a false sense of safety simply because of their legal status, and are often misused because of that. People can die from overdosing on Tylenol, and they do. Powerful and addictive prescription drugs, like anti-depressants, are given out at doctors offices like candy with little concern for what the drug does to the body and mind alike, simply because they are legal. Legal does not mean safe and responsible, and illegal does not mean satanic. If Americans really care about reducing the amount of raging addicts and fiends in this country, they need to take a clear look at the facts, and institute and rational and responsible policy towards drugs- not continue this failed and myopic prohibition.