Day: Prohibit Politicians NOT Drugs

2015 marks the 100th birthday of the failed war on drugs. An article by Eric Schneider in Politico from January concisely documents the century of failure in regulating heroin.

Schneider’s article and the above graph created by documentary filmmaker Matt Groff demonstrate the continued futility of the war on drugs.

Why then do politicians on both sides of aisle fight over who can spend the most money, hire the best drug czar, and tap into the largest pool of federal funds?

The short answer is that politicians are willing to steal from and destroy the prosperity of future generations in order to feign strength and a false sense of moral superiority for the purpose of aggrandizing their personal political careers. Their addiction to power and government spending far exceeds the most severe case of opioid addiction.

Do we need a drug czar? No. Do we need more federal funding to combat the problem? No.

When Chris Sununu and others scoff at the fact that we haven’t taken advantage of $12 million of federal funding to fight the “drug epidemic,” let’s not forgot that we have an $18.3 trillion debt, $97 trillion of unfunded liabilities, and an annual budget deficit of ~ $500 billion.

This isn’t a question of us getting our “fair share” of money paid into the system. This $12 million dollars is money borrowed from our children and grandchildren. This is an egregious case of “No taxation without representation.” They do it because it gives the appearance that they actually care and are doing something. It is the hallmark of the career politician:

“lots of activity and little or no actual achievement.”

Just say no to drug czars, the drug war, and politicians who cynically seek to mock the credulity of people who have not yet realized that there is a difference between the government’s ability to identify a problem and its ability to provide a solution.