We need to get out of Afghanistan, because its prevalent culture is essentially corrupt and our efforts to change it only result in our pouring money into the pockets of local politicians\u2014who then give kickbacks to opium-growing warlords. Related to this, we should legalize drugs\u2014including opium products such as heroin\u2014and re-channel funds away from trying to block imports. This would undercut Afghanistan\u2019s narco-economy, and it would also address the economic foundations of other narco-traffickers.<\/p>\n
Regarding those who use drugs in our country, it would be better to practice what\u2019s called \u201charm reduction.\u201d Those who do become addicted get some rehabilitation service\u2014some, not indefinite\u2014mixed with a culture of moderation. Fighting the desire to become \u201chigh\u201d (intoxicated) only wastes money\u2014it\u2019s another futile form of prohibition. We need a libertarian stance here, which would also give a boost to local industry and re-boot the economy. Legalization would also reduce the drain on government expenditures for prisons, guards, the load on the legal system, etc. These activities need to be left alone.<\/p>\n
Conservatives who want to reduce government expenditures and interference should begin with these obvious frontiers. Social conservatives need to recognize that such beliefs collide with financial conservativism. It\u2019s time to recognize that the phrase, \u201cWe can\u2019t afford it\u201d needs to become a mantra for the second decade of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
Regarding the war against drugs, a recent issue of \u201cThe Economist\u201d magazine has a similar point, that legalization is the least bad approach, that efforts at prohibition are horribly expensive and ineffective, and they create many unintended consequences of corruption and narco-states that are far worse in the big picture than the increased use of drugs. Some of that money could be better applied in a harm-reduction strategy. This conservative magazine and a number of others, plus many thoughtful people in the criminal justice system, have come to the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
The main opposition is the mass of people who are inclined to think that we can do (and afford) anything, and that noble intentions can succeed, given enough will. There needs to be more protest that such attitudes are simplistic and naive, and that such slogans are used by demagogues for their own personal empowerment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We need to get out of Afghanistan, because its prevalent culture is essentially corrupt and our efforts to change it only result in our pouring money into the pockets of local politicians\u2014who then give kickbacks to opium-growing warlords. Related to this, we should legalize drugs\u2014including opium products such as heroin\u2014and re-channel funds away from trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}