A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
A few days ago, the Cato Institute posted this exceptional audio recording of John McWhorter (Dec 3, 2010) as its daily podcast. In it, McWhorter makes a compelling case against the so-called "war on drugs" by appealing to its detrimental effects on black Americans. He argues that the criminalization of the production and exchange of drugs causes the allocation of law enforcement resources towards the pursuit and apprehension of perpetrators who are disproportionately young black men. This, according to McWhorter, is the primary reason why the police encounter black men on such a routine basis and why the relationship between the police and black men is as acrimonious as it is.
McWhorter's main contention however is that the mal-effects of drug prohibition give the "racism forever Cassandras" the opportunity to lamentably and publicly misconstrue such mal-effects as the result instead of racial bigotry. Then the emphasis once again falls erroneously upon white Americans, as, according to the narrative of racial opportunists such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, white Americans are the perpetrators of such bigotry. This is not progress, says McWhorter. Ending the war on drugs would, as he says, "pull the rug out from under all of this"; it would leave race baiters and "victimologists" bereft of further excuses with which to argue against calls for black introspective reform.
I could reinforce McWhorter's argument with additional arguments, but nevertheless, McWhorter offers a convincing case against drug prohibition that conservatives can certainly embrace.
Well???
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Comments:
Sep '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
At what point will the conspiracy theorist rise up and say that drugs were made legal to destroy the black community?
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
It seems the empirical evidence that demonstrates the damage done by drug prohibition to the black community is enough to warrant skepticism regarding the claim that the sale of drugs should be prohibited. The motives behind drug prohibition seem to me to be irrelevant.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Urban blacks are also the most likely to be arrested for domestic violence and other non-drug related crimes. It's not because of drugs and it's not because they're black. It's because they're the urban poor. Around the world, crime is highest in poor, densely populated areas and often associated with ethnic minorities who, for various historical reasons, ended up being concentrated in such areas.
Jul '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Not even a little bit. Drug intoxication and addiction has been used for thousands of years to enfeeble and subjugate populations. Gangs would not suddenly disappear, or lose their interest in subverting cute young things into harem arrangements. The prevalence of young black men engaging in this area of activity is an indictment of the pathologies I watched growing up in a mixed neighborhood, where blacks and whites had different standards applied for behavior and discipline. My sons now see the same disparities in their schools.
The pathologies of the anti-white, anti-American racist underclass would simply be accelerated. Like any teenager testing limits, they will go beyond the limit whatever it may be. I have many friends who have worked hard to escape that social ghetto.
Al Sharpton has cheerfully perpetrated fraud in the Tawana Brawley case and preached racist mayhem that saw the murder of an Hassidic Jew. Jesse Jackson is a one man racism protection racket, holding up corporate America for a living and spewing racist bilge about Hymietown (New York). They encourage these same pathologies by shifting the blame for every ugly, violent, anti-societal tearing at the black community to everyone but blacks themselves.
Sep '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Sorry, off topic, decided against it, my bad.
Edited on December 11, 2010 at 7:04pmMay '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
There are many causes behind the retrogressive socio-economic conditions of black Americans. Average productivity among black Americans is lower than that of other ethnic groups, hence they are particularly vulnerable to the unemployment effects of minimum wage laws. The proliferation of licenses further ensure that black unemployment remains high. Welfare spending disincentivizes productive lifestyles by subsidizing indolence and passivity with regard to finding jobs. Gun control laws effectively disarm law-abiding citizens in black neighborhoods, reducing obstructions to criminal activity. Tax-financed public schools fail minority children by offering sub-optimal education due to a lack of performance-enhancing incentives such as market competition.
But I believe drug prohibition aggravates conditions by penalizing a victimless crime and dooms many black men to a future of incarceration.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Gang activity would not disappear but it surely would be severely reduced. Its no coincidence that alcohol prohibition led to the rise of gangs willing to distribute alcohol in the black market. Prohibiting goods like drugs or alcohol reduces their supply and thereby increases their prices. As drug and alcohol prices rise, the desire to sell them increases because the profit margins are larger.
Very little stopped gangs in the 1920s who were willing to break the law regarding alcohol distribution from breaking other laws including those against murder and theft. They were already criminals, so they possess few reservation over killing competitors to reduce the supply and gain market share. Such an underground market is naturally going to attract the kind of "entrepreneurs" who are inclined to use violence in order to triumph over competition. When drug prohibition ends, then law-abiding entrepreneurs will flood the market and crowd out the criminals, making violence among drug merchants impossible and undesirable.
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
I'm persuaded, Michael. But how do you answer the charge that the drug prohibitionists levy: that the underclass (especially the black underclass) would sink more deeply into depravity if drugs were legal and plentiful? I think I have an answer to that, but I'd be interested in hearing yours.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
I can promise you this much: McWhorter is absolutely correct when he argues that the black leftist intellectual establishment calamitously misinterprets the effects of drug prohibition by arguing that its all racial bigotry. As long as drug prohibition continues, white Americans had better get used to being designated as "racists" indefinitely by disgruntled black academics and "social critics." Of this I am certain.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
It depends - is this proposition of their's a conclusion or an assumption? If its the latter, then I would request a proof of it. If its a conclusion, I would have to examine the argument.
I gather however one argument is that if drug prohibition was repealed, drug prices would fall and the quantity of drugs demanded would therefore rise as per the law of demand. The econometrics on the elasticity of the demand for drugs varies, but even assuming this, the quantity of drugs supplied would actually fall as per the law of supply. Furthermore, drug acquisition is already too easy - everyone and their mother can get blazed on marijuana right now if they wanted to, even Peter. The availability of drugs I believe would not change that drastically.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Moreover, I would offer an analogical argument juxtaposing drugs and alcohol. Both substances are quite capable of getting a consumer fired from his job, inducing irresponsibility, violence, and general misbehavior. Both can very easy ruin a person's life if over-consumed. However, alcohol distribution is legal and, while black Americans have their fair share of alcoholics, they nevertheless are able to cope as a community.
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
I agree -- I think the key there is to "cope as a community." If drugs were legalized, I think it's clear that they'd become more available and maybe cheaper. On the other hand, the world of drugs would cease to be a local thing -- meaning, it's highly likely that certain neighborhoods and communities which are right now entirely about the drug trade would cease to be so dependent.
But it's a risk, right? We don't know what the short- or long-term effect is going to be.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Its not like proving the Pythagorean theorem. The conclusion that "everything will be ok" is inductive rather than deductive. But I think the conclusion is correct nonetheless.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
I'm not sure, but I don't think Prohibition is entirely analogous to other drugs because alcohol has a unique cultural foundation. A handful of other drugs, like opium and tobacco, have also been ubiquitious within particular societies; but alcohol is nearly universal across the world and throughout history. Thus, I suspect the general public response to the banning of alcohol is likely different from the banning of other drugs.
It's more like trying to ban beef in Texas. It's not just another product. It's culturally emblematic. Pubs are culturally important to England, wines to Italy, beer to America, and so on.
I support legalization of marijuana and perhaps some other drugs, but I'm wary of legalizing all drugs. If you've ever seen someone high on heroine or having a bad trip on LSD, you know that the dangers aren't only in how such drugs are sold. Such drugs can fundamentally distort a person's perception of reality, as opposed to alcohol or weed which merely loosen a person's judgment.
I'd like to hear the perspectives of people who remember when such drugs were legal in America.
Edited on December 11, 2010 at 8:22pmJul '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Michael Labeit
Gang activity would not disappear but it surely would be severely reduced. Its no coincidence that alcohol prohibition led to the rise of gangs willing to distribute alcohol in the black market. Prohibiting goods like drugs or alcohol reduces their supply and thereby increases their prices. As drug and alcohol prices rise, the desire to sell them increases because the profit margins are larger.
... · Dec 11 at 10:07am
The economics are well understood. Sadly, they are not a sound predictor when dealing with the dynamics of the poor neighborhoods. The notion that drug black markets drive the gangs ignores the anthropology. The gangs look to control people to exercise power over their environment, and to "succeed". Remove prohibition from a community without cultural and biological resistance to the addictive substances, and you are recreating the worst tragedies of the American Indian reservations in the heart of our cities. And that, too, will be painted as a racist decision.
Dec '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Michael Labeit
But I believe drug prohibition aggravates conditions by penalizing a victimless crime and dooms many black men to a future of incarceration. · Dec 11 at 9:52am
It's not a victimless crime, any more than suicide is. If you want to argue a libertarian position that citizens should be free to poison themselves as they see fit, that's one thing -- but then recognize that those poisoned citizens will be every bit as dependent, every bit as incapable of self-government, and every bit as prone to seek anti-social means of procuring their poisons as when the poisons were prohibited.
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
But the problem with Indian reservations isn't alcohol -- that's the symptom. The problem is soul-killing and industry-smothering federal handouts.
I think the black community does have the power to resist -- and condemn -- drug addiction in its members. But right now, drugs are twinned with crime and cash, which is a lot harder to resist. Maybe if the latter two were separated, we'd see a strong resurgence of the (traditionally) strong social conservatism of the black community? I mean, Martin Luther King didn't take a bullet in Memphis so that the black community could devolve into baby mamas, gangs, three hundred dollar sneakers, and crackpot conspiracy theories.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Stuart, selling drugs is very much a victimless crime since it does not involve coercion and crimes that do not invoke coercion are victimless. This is merely a matter of applying the essence of victimless crimes deductively.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Stuart, selling drugs is very much a victimless crime since it does not involve coercion and crimes that do not invoke coercion are victimless. This is merely a matter of applying the essence of victimless crimes deductively.
Jul '10
Re: A Powerful Argument Against Drug Prohibition
Rob Long
But the problem with Indian reservations isn't alcohol -- that's the symptom. The problem is soul-killing and industry-smothering federal handouts.
I think the black community does have the power to resist -- and condemn -- drug addiction in its members. But right now, drugs are twinned with crime and cash, which is a lot harder to resist. Maybe if the latter two were separated, we'd see a strong resurgence of the (traditionally) strong social conservatism of the black community? I mean, Martin Luther King didn't take a bullet in Memphis so that the black community could devolve into baby mamas, gangs, three hundred dollar sneakers, and crackpot conspiracy theories. · Dec 11 at 12:25pm
Sorry, Rob, can't agree. The families with those values have been self-selected out of the community. What's left are man-boys raised with no male in the house and afraid of being called out as an oreo. And alcohol hit the Indians like a ton of bricks from the get go, Trail of Tears documents some of it. I absolutely agree on MLK, but this is not the way. And millions of blacks have escaped, and continue to.
Edited on December 11, 2010 at 9:46pm