Repeal Day's 75th anniversary
Repeal Day's 75th anniversary is December 5th. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by Congress on January 16, 1919, making it illegal to produce, distribute, or sell alcohol. Following the growth of organized crime and a growing realization that prohibition did not work, prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933.
Today, there is again a growing realization that prohibition, this time of drugs, is still not working. A Los Angeles Times article published November 27th cites a report by the Brookings Institution, the latest in a series of revelations that the war on drugs has failed (H/T a public defender).
Contrary to government claims, the use of heroin and cocaine in the U.S. has not declined significantly, the report says, and the use of methamphetamine is spreading. Falling street prices suggest that the supply of narcotics has not declined noticeably, and U.S. prevention and treatment programs are woefully underfunded, the study says.
The war on drugs has resulted in ever increasing violence, at home and abroad, as drug cartels continue to profit from the vacuum created by prohibition in the United States. Former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, interviewed by the LA Times for the article,
cited skyrocketing violence in his own country as an example of the damage done by these policies. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug-related warfare between government troops and traffickers, and among rival drug gangs. Many of the weapons confiscated in raids and shootouts came from the U.S.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an ever-growing group of former police officers, judges, and prosecutors who support bringing an end to prohibition, will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of alcohol prohibition with an event tomorrow at the National Press Club (H/T Radley Balko), and have issued a press release:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, December 2, a group of law enforcers who fought on the front lines of the “war on drugs” and witnessed its failures will commemorate the 75th anniversary of alcohol prohibition’s repeal by calling for drug legalization. The cops, judges and prosecutors will release a report detailing how many billions of dollars can be used to boost the ailing economy when drug prohibition is ended.“America’s leaders had the good sense to realize that we couldn’t afford to keep enforcing the ineffective prohibition of alcohol during the Great Depression,” said Terry Nelson, a 30-year veteran federal agent and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Now, cops fighting on the front lines of today’s ‘war on drugs’ are working to make our streets safer and help solve our economic crisis by teaching lawmakers a lesson from history about the failure of prohibition. We can do it again . . ."
“We Can Do It Again: Repealing Today’s Failed Prohibition,” highlights how the “war on drugs” – just like alcohol prohibition – subsidizes violent gangsters, endangers public health and diminishes public respect for the rule of law. The report also details how the newer prohibition comes with the much graver threat of international cartels and terrorists who profit from illegal drug sales. Yet, it leaves readers on a hopeful note…
“We’re starting to see an emerging consensus that drug prohibition just doesn’t make sense,” said Seattle’s retired Police Chief Norm Stamper, a LEAP member. “Three out of four Americans now say the ‘war on drugs’ has failed, and so do the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. Now, it’s up to the new administration and Congress to follow through.”
Below is a link to a video made by LEAP, and some highlights from their message:
- In 1914, 1.3% of the people in this country were addicted to drugs when we passed the Harrison Act, creating the first illegal drug in the U.S. In 1970, the beginning of the war on drugs, 1.3% of the people in this country were addicted to drugs. Today, a trillion dollars and countless destroyed lives later, 1.3% of the population is addicted to drugs.
- Drug legalization is not an approach to the drug problem; it is about our crime and violence problem. Once drugs are legalized we still have to deal with the drug problem. We are capable of dealing with addictions - 50% of the adult smokers in our country quit in the last 10 years, giving up nicotine, the most addictive drug that we know, without criminalizing it but through aggressive education efforts.
- The first outcome of legalization is that 1.6 million less people would have to be arrested every year. And it means that 69 billion dollars every year would be freed up to put in other places, such as prevention and treatment of substance abuse, other much needed government programs, and the economy.
- In South Africa in 1993, under apartheid, they incarcerated 851 black males per 100,000. In the United States in 2004, under prohibition, we incarcerated 4919 black males per 100,000. In 2007, according to the Pew Center on the States, 1 in 15 black men aged 18 or older were incarcerated, and 1 in 9 black men aged 20 - 34 were incarcerated. How anyone could look at this and not see institutionalized racism, I don't know.
