4/20-related

Even conservative pundit, George Will, is starting to see the light!

Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs?
By George F. Will, Published: April 11
Amelioration of today’s drug problem requires Americans to understand the significance of the 80-20 ratio. Twenty percent of American drinkers consume 80 percent of the alcohol sold here. The same 80-20 split obtains among users of illicit drugs.
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In “Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know,” policy analysts Mark Kleiman, Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken argue that imprisoning low-ranking street-corner dealers is pointless: A $200 transaction can cost society $100,000 for a three-year sentence. And imprisoning large numbers of dealers produces an army of people who, emerging from prison with blighted employment prospects, can only deal drugs. Which is why, although a few years ago Washington, D.C., dealers earned an average of $30 an hour, today they earn less than the federal minimum wage ($7.25).
...

In the 1920s, H.L. Mencken wrote a series of articles damning Prohibition... on exactly the same grounds: the social cost of alcohol addiction is FAR LESS than the cost of enforecment... and PROHIBITION simply creates a well-organized criminal class!

There are two GOP-friendly arguments AGAINST prohibition of drugs:

1. Why, exactly, is it the Government's job to tell ME what to do with my body? If I choose to kill myself, isn't that MY business??? - this oughta appeal to the Ron Paul libertarian conservative.

2. From a cost-benefit persepective, the War on Drugs JUST ISN'T WORKING! The social costs of drug use - even hard drugs - is FAR LESS than the cost of enforcement! - shouldn't this appeal to the 'fiscally conservative', Mitt Romney branch of the GOP.

... in addition, our draconian drug policies deprive LOTS of third-world countries of their only viable export!... and we create the horrid 'drug cartels' of Columbia & Mexico!!!

Stop the madness!!!