Drug War

Destroying Families for the Glory of the Drug War, Part 2

by James Bovard March 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 In Clyo, Georgia, 11-year-old Tony Johnson met police Sergeant Sam O'Dwyer during Tony's DARE training. After completing his training, Tony met with O'Dwyer three times and eventually informed the cop of a few marijuana plants on a corner of his parents' land near their trailer home. O'Dwyer busted Tony's mother on April 9, 1992. ...

Destroying Families for the Glory of the Drug War, Part 1

by James Bovard February 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 Few programs better symbolize the arrogance, propaganda, and political opportunism of the drug war than the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. DARE is the most popular antidrug education program in America. Labeled by the Chicago Tribune as "a darling of America's drug war," DARE is currently being taught by police officers to ...

The Relegalization of Drugs, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I am often asked what distinguishes libertarians from nonlibertarians. I sometimes respond with a political or economic answer. But I've concluded that the best answer is a psychological one: Libertarians, unlike others, have a fierce commitment to reality, which is a commitment to truth. We have broken free of the ...

The Relegalization of Drugs, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What could be more destructive and dysfunctional than public schooling? Let's cut through the facade of parents' voluntarily taking their children to the school bus each morning or dropping them off at school for their wonderful, cheerful, bright day of learning. The real reason parents do this is simple: If ...

The Relegalization of Drugs, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 A member of the Christian Coalition recently telephoned me and said that she agreed with most of what The Future of Freedom Foundation stands for and wanted to support us. She then asked: "What is your organization's stand on drug legalization?" I responded: "We call for the total legalization of ...

The Clinton Administration’s War on Privacy

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1996

The Clinton administration, self-proclaimed champion of civil liberties and small government, is a big fraud. President Clinton's Department of Justice, it was recently revealed, is wiretapping more and more American citizens each year. It is increasing the number of federal wiretaps by more than 30 percent annually. What's more, the administration is bulking up the budgets of the FBI and ...

Drug War Dementia

by James Bovard November 1, 1996

H. L. Mencken observed in 1918: "A politician normally prospers under democracy in proportion . . . as he excels in the invention of imaginary perils and imaginary defenses against them." In recent years, politicians have found few better ways to frighten voters than with the specter of drugs. The government's war on drug users is annually jailing hundreds ...

The Big Lie

by Vin Suprynowicz November 1, 1996

If the failed and unconstitutional "war on drugs" really needed another nail in its coffin, the 60-page report "Illicit Drugs and Crime" by Bruce L. Benson and David W. Rasmussen, professors of economics at Florida State University, should do the job. After studying crime rates in Florida, which poured vast resources into a beefed-up drug war in the years 1984-89, ...

Just Say No to the War on Drugs

by Karen Selick July 1, 1995

Although I don't practice criminal law, I recently found myself waiting in a courtroom during a sentencing. The accused was a young man of perhaps twenty, who had rather imprudently sold six grams of cannabis resin to a police officer, pocketing the grand sum of about $100. He pleaded guilty, and the crown and ...

Citizen Exploitation Isn’t New

by John L. Egolf Jr. August 1, 1994

Recent news that the U.S. government subjected as many as 800 people to radiation as part of an experimental program during the Cold War era, and Energy Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary's acknowledgment and recommendation of compensation for the victims is cause for deep concern and is also a symptom of a far wider and deeper sickness infesting the U.S. ...

Freedom, Virtue, and Responsibility, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Despite their good intentions, the proponents of the welfare-state, managed-economy way of life have ended up with results that are opposite from what they intended. The war on poverty was supposed to end poverty. It did not, and the situation is worse than when the war started some thirty years ...

Freedom, Virtue, and Responsibility, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The welfare state and the managed economy do more than destroy individual self-esteem. They also destroy hopes of improving one's life. Now, we know that money cannot buy happiness, but certainly the hopes of improving one's own economic well-being provide a stimulus to happiness. That is to say, if a ...