Drug War

Endless Evil: The Drug Wars Continuing Collateral Damage, Part 1

by Radley Balko August 21, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 In September 2009, 28-year-old Jonathan Ayers pulled into a gas station in Stephens County, Georgia, to withdraw money from an ATM. Ayers, a pastor, had just given $23, all the cash he had in his pocket, to Johanna Barrett, a drug addict alleged to be a prostitute to whom Ayers had been ministering. His ...

Bathing in Irresponsibility

by Rich Schwartzman June 29, 2011

To borrow from Neville Chamberlain, there is peace in our time here in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett on June 23 signed into law a bill that bans bath salts, thereby saving us from self-responsibility. The Keystone state is now the 21st state in the country to have a law prohibiting the possession or sale of these products that have been ...

Free State or Police State

by Rich Schwartzman June 15, 2011

The enemies of a free state — and a free people — are at it again. Not that they ever stopped, but a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, along with a new directive within the FBI and a city council ordinance in Iowa. make it perfectly clear that the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures is a ...

The 40-Year War on Freedom

by Laurence M. Vance June 15, 2011

Although the U.S. governments wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken center stage for the better part of the last ten years, there is another failed war that has been waged by the federal government for the past forty years. The war on drugs was declared by President Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971. Speaking at a press conference ...

An Intoxicating Hypocrisy

by Rich Schwartzman May 27, 2011

Today’s socially conservative Republicans are reminiscent of the proverbial Puritan who had trouble sleeping because he knew that, somewhere, people were enjoying themselves. These are the same Republicans who say they’re for small government, unless, of course, they think you’re doing something of which they don’t approve. Then they need to create laws against those things. Not all the members of ...

Why Is the U.S. Fighting Mexico’s Drug War?

by Laurence M. Vance May 25, 2011

In December of 2006, Mexico’s new president, Felipe Calderón, declared war on drug cartels. “We need to win. And we will win. That’s my idea. I’m sure about that,” he said in an “ABC News” interview. But winning this war is coming at a heavy price: assassinations of government officials, horrific gun battles in Mexican streets, kidnappings, ...

U.S. Attorneys Crack Down on the Tenth Amendment

by Laurence M. Vance May 4, 2011

Since just last month, the Arizona Department of Health Services has been accepting applications for medical marijuana patient and caregiver cards. Voters in Arizona approved an initiative placed on the ballot via a citizen petition, Proposition 203, the “Arizona Medical Marijuana Act,’ in the general election last November. The measure, which took effect on April 14, narrowly ...

Baseball, Steroids, and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance April 19, 2011

Even non-baseball fans like me couldn’t help but notice that right in the middle of Barry Bonds’ perjury trial Manny Ramirez abruptly retired rather than face a 100-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy — for the second time. Former Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants outfielder and fourteen-time All-Star Bonds was charged with three counts of making ...

The Drug War Is Expanding

by Laurence M. Vance February 8, 2011

There is no question that the war on drugs is a failure. In spite of decades of prohibition laws, threats of fines and/or imprisonments, and massive propaganda campaigns, drugs are available and affordable. The Mental Health Services Administration — a government agency — has reported that marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine use has recently increased. The government’s GAO has even ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show: The Evils of the Drug War

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 15, 2011

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Drug-Warrior Hypocrisy

by Laurence M. Vance December 3, 2010

Statists of every variety — left/right, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, progressive/moderate — disagree vocally and often. Although these groups may argue among themselves and with each other about any number of issues — health care, education, Social Security, the environment, tax cuts, business regulations — they all have one thing in common. The statists are all paternalistic and believe in some ...

Why Don’t Conservatives Oppose the War on Drugs?

by Laurence M. Vance November 24, 2010

The war on drugs is a failure. According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: “Drug use in the United States increased in 2009, reversing downward trends since 2002. ” There was a spike in the number of Americans admitting to using marijuana, ecstasy, and ...