Aside from the fundamental violation of the principles of private property and self-ownership, the war on drugs is also horrible because it puts the enormous cost of waging the war on drugs on people who have no connection to the drug trade. This is an excellent article on the subject:
In the article, David Henderson says:
“One of my main arguments for legalizing weed, cocaine, heroin, etc. relates to costs and benefits when drugs are illegal versus costs and benefits when they’re legal. Specifically, those who bear a large part of the costs when drugs are legal are the users themselves whereas, when drugs are illegal, the drug war imposes costs on people who have no connection to the drug trade.”
Proponents of the war on drugs often argue that drug users are more likely to commit crimes, and it is better to incarcerate them for drug use in order to prevent the potential crime. This, of course, is done with the certainty of harming those who pay for the policing and prosecution of drug crimes by taking their money to wage the war on drugs. Thereby, we are causing certain harms to reduce speculative potential harms.
The war on drugs is immoral, ineffective, and it causes far more harm than good. It’s bad by nearly any measurement.
