On the War on Drugs

What is the point of prison? This is an essential question to be asked when evaluating the cost of the war on drugs. The war on drugs as many have begun to realize has been a spectacular failure. We have had two major lessons, first, drug use is a health issue, not a criminal one. We do not treat alcoholism as a crime so why should we treat heroin addiction any differently? Second, drug markets are incredibly inelastic, even when suppliers are cracked down on the demand is simply met another way with an increased price. There is no excuse to continue, especially as the new Biden administration comes into office championing progress as one of its goals. What better way to unify the nation than to unify families that have been torn apart due to minor drug offenses?

To explain why drug addiction is a health, not criminal, issue we should turn to Portugal. During the 80’s and 90’s they had a major health epidemic. Addiction was through the roof and other countries suffering similar issues did not seem to have any answers. Enter stage left João Goulão, “then a young doctor in The Algarve, in southern Portugal, found an increasing number of his patients were coming to him with problems related to drug addiction. ‘I wasn’t a specialist in drugs,’ he says, ‘but I was available whenever people came to me.’ Like other community doctors around the country at the time, he accidentally became an expert in treating drug addiction.” His importance cannot be understated. Moving from a syringe exchange program expansion in 1993 and building up into legislative reform in 2001 the program was a stunning success.

Currently in Portugal if a person is found to have any drugs on them in low enough amounts that it seems they are using them personally they are simply taken to a center where, “they talk about the health implications of drugs and note drug use is still illegal. He is then free to go, with the message that if he ever needs help, he can contact them.” Portugal also has addiction rates much lower than many other EU countries which, “have rates that are double and triple the rate for postdecriminalization Portugal.”

The inelasticity of drugs is incredibly