The Drug War always corrupts

It’s the same everywhere you look. Drug war declared, great intentions, massive penalties for offenders, then organized criminals, corrupt cops, corrupt officials, government cover-ups, increased drug problems, calls for better oversight, and an absolute failure to understand that the drug war is the problem.

Read this story of the drug war in Nigeria: Drug war gone burst. The awkward translation actually makes it an oddly charming read, but the key thing is that it’s the same old story.

And it’s a painful reminder that prohibition always fails. The folks that defend prohibition with the “all we need to do is make prohibition better” chant fail to realize that its very foundation is fatally flawed. Can they even identify one place and time where a drug prohibition regime has actually worked?

In fact, here’s the challenge: Can anyone identify an effective prohibition regime of any kind involving an easily supplied, high-demand product or service? (And by effective, I mean one that dramatically reduces the activity without increasing the cost to society of prohibition over that of the prohibited activity.)