Today is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of the 18th amendment. For those of you (and me) who fell asleep during high schools civics, the 18th A. banned alcohol in the United States -- a constitutional provision that led to death, disease, and deregulation!
If you don't remember prohibition, history tells us that it didn't work so well, so it was repealed on December 5th, 1933 by the 21st amendment.
Question: Hypothetically, if Prohibition was enacted by the 15th amendment, and repealed by the 18th amendment, do you think the drinking age would have started out at 15 and then risen to age 18?
Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann has a thoughtful and articulate reflection of alochol and drug porhibition today in the Wall Street Journal here.
ONDCP Director (Drug Czar) John Walters also has a piece alongside Ethan's piece here. As you would expect, it is filled with meaningless rhetoric. But what really grinds my gears (besides having an incompetant fool in charge of, let's face it, the world's drug policies) is that Walters has the nerve to think that the war on drugs "has been a success -- although that success is one of Washington's best kept secrets."
Apparently Walters is in a position to define his own success, mainly by saying youth drug use has gone down during his tenure -- although this demographic's drug use fluctuates widely and the measurements of use have been criticized by a number of organizations.
Furthermore, consider that in 2005, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 22,000 people died from drug overdoses -- surpassing the 17,000 homicides for that year. Deaths from prescription drugs increased over 160% for that same period as well. While Mr. Walters and his office concentrate on preventing drug use in youth, these statistics indicate that he is cherry picking and setting his own benchmarks for "success".
Maybe Mr. Walters should go and tell the friends and family of those 22, 000 people who died that his policies are winning the war on drugs, when science-based public health programs effectively, and more cheaply, could have contributed to prevent such overdoses. With so many people needlessly dying each year, it is ridiculous for Mr. Walters to claim success, or as he intimates, victory, in fighting the war on drugs.
Posted by Evan G.