The real price of the War on Drugs costs both money and lives

The War on Drugs has been a massive failure from its inception. Not only do many of the policies enacted as a result of it violate the very fabric of American freedoms, it has also led to nonviolent “criminals” being locked away in prison for absolutely ridiculous reasons.

Inspired primarily through harsh racisms directed at immigrants hundreds of years ago, drug prohibition in America has the kind of disgusting past that you would likely expect, given just how despicable everything that has come after actually is. Dating back to the 1870s, the first drug prohibition laws were anti-opium-related and were targeted towards Chinese immigrants. In the 1900s, anti-cocaine laws were targeted towards African Americans. Shortly thereafter, anti-cannabis laws that we are still fighting today were enacted to target Mexican immigrants.

Basically none of these laws were enacted in order to truly protect the American people.  Almost all of them exist for the sole purpose of oppressing one particular group, but they’ve actually managed to oppress us as a whole society.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the War on Drugs — even to those who don’t engage in any form of recreational or medicinal “drug” use — is that it is costing all of the taxpayers in America money that we could be spending on something that truly matters. There are so many people serving time for simple drug charges — time that we are all paying for — that it simply must be stopped. There are actual criminals out there that deserve to be in prison, but someone carrying a little bit of marijuana isn’t one of them, no matter how you slice it.

As freedom-loving Americans, we need to shine a light on the grave injustices perpetrated by the War on Drugs and put an end to this ridiculous movement once and for all. For all of us to be free — for any of us to be free — we have to eliminate laws that lock people up for these absurd crimes. We have to change things if we are ever going to make any progress.

And if you take a look at the state of our country, it is clear that we really need to progress…

Sources:

DrugPolicy.org

BlacklistedNews.com