Drug War Truce Implications

Walter Russell Mead has taken a thoughtful look at the drug wars and the implications of legalizing drugs. Writing for The American Interest, he concludes that legalization might take the same form as our current approaches to smoking or overindulgence in alcohol. That is, not illegal but also not permitted in the workplace or while driving or ... in many other settings.

Mead finally notes that drug legalization could make our inner cities worse off than today. He says:

By dramatically reducing the incarceration rate of young Black men and closing down illegal enterprises (both good things in and of themselves) we will be dramatically exacerbating the problems of unemployment and poverty among a very volatile group of people. It is not entirely clear to me that the result of these two changes will be a fall in the crime rate and an outbreak of social peace.

I conclude Mead believes the result will be, if anything, an increase in the crime rate and a decrease in social peace.