Lesser Evils

There can be great difficulty in accepting the value of tolerating evil for the good of society. There are many ills which would require the imposition of greater ills to prevent. For example you could reduce the number of vehicular deaths by requiring a much higher level of skill and ability to acquire a license but that would adversely impact the freedom and livelihood many people. You could also remove children from their parents' homes to facilities designed to prevent any possible injury to the children but doing as a matter of course so would be too monstrous to be endured even though it would save lives.

The prohibition of drugs has created more and worse ills that it conceivably prevents. It has created strong financial incentives to engage in criminal activity. It has alienated those who need the protection of law enforcement the most from that that enforcement. It has created an industry operating outside the law allowing illegal actions such as theft, intimidation, bribery, and murder to become part of its normal means of operation. It deprives the government of taxes. It reduces the quality and safety of the goods leading to injury and death among users. It creates barriers to treatment of dependency and other conditions in users. It subjects even those who don't use to suspicion and intrusive testing. It costs billions for ineffective enforcement. It increases the price of the goods increasing the amount of effort legal or otherwise required to satisfy one's habit. It vastly increases the cost of health care by requiring permission and unnecessary additional expenditures to acquire appropriate treatments

The benefit claimed is reduced drug addiction and reduced negative consequences of addiction. It has not seemed to be a significant barrier to the acquisition of drugs by the upper class who can exploit legal means to acquire prescription analogs and receive lower penalties for violations. Nor has it created a barrier to lower class drug use, other than the increased price, since the poor are used as means of distribution. It is possible that the middle classes who have limited casual contact with illicit drugs and  are without the resource to game the system have experienced a reduced level of addiction.

This possible reduction of addiction levels may be reducing incidents of health problems, mental illness, and domestic abuse and other crimes. The reduction in health problems in those who abstain is balance by increased health problems in those using drugs or in those who seek more dangerous alternatives. A causative link between drug use and mental illness has not been established to my satisfaction and if it ever is it is balanced decreased availability of and increased difficulty in obtaining and maintaining treatment for those with mental illnesses. The reduction in domestic abuse may be real but potential gains are limited by the legal availability of alcohol. Any potential reduction in other crimes cause by addictions is balanced by the massive amount of crime necessary to support the habits of users as well as crimes by users to support their own habits.

But legalization is strongly opposed by some since it will have negative consequences. These consequences allows the proponents of prohibition to harp on the ills of legalization and demonize their opponents as the advocates of those ills without taking responsibility for the ills crated by prohibition. Also as with most government policies it is defended as sacrosanct by those who must enforce it and those who profit from the status quo.

This imposition and injustice is not lessened by that fact it has been long standing. Nor is it helped by the law's justification hat since interstate commerce can not be effectively regulated possession can be viewed as commerce and regulated instead. I find the justification that government should be allowed to act beyond its bounds because acting within them is to difficult or that its interests entitle it to greater control than is actually granted by the constitution to be reprehensible and possible treasonous.