The State Is… Helicopters & Flamethrowers

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” — Albert Einstein

Recently The National Review published an interview that Tom McLellan, Obama’s Deputy Drug Czar, gave to Harold Pollack.  It’s a good long read and well worth the time.

I’m sure that many others here will find much of it as alarming as I did.

First, for those of you who believe that the Obama administration is friendly to the idea of marijuana legalization…

This  administration, certainly including ONDCP and the Department of Justice, opposes marijuana legalization and believes that it’s worth it to try to reduce availability of marijuana.

McLellan then takes it one (scary) step further…

“It’s good for you.” That should be the standard, rather than “Marijuana’s not that bad.” Name for me another substance that you would say, “It’s not that bad, so let’s reverse state laws. Let’s increase availability to a product that really is targeted to young people.” For that, you should have to prove that it’s genuinely good, not just “not that bad”.

To be fair he does specifically state that “it’s good for you” should be the standard for reversing laws but, really, how far is that from saying that “it’s good for you” should be the standard for future legislation?  Call of Duty isn’t “good for you,” and neither is scarfing down, in rapid succession, a half-dozen chocolate long johns.  I’m not quite ready to give either up, however.  On the other hand, being pulled over by state patrolmen is not good for me…  Hey, this might not be so bad…

Photo Credit Huitzil -- Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Some parts of Mexico have been consumed by violence with the insanity and futility of prohibition as the direct cause of this madness.  Pesky supply and demand rears its ugly head and teaches (or tries to) politicians some lessons in basic economics.  The people who inhabit these violent regions of Mexico pay a hard price for the ineptitudes of politicians on both sides of the border.

Have no fear, Deputy Drug Czar Tom McLellan has a plan!

Yet let’s take a look at contemporary Mexico. I’ve just been down there. I haven’t been to the most severely‑affected places, but I’ve been to several other places that have been affected… The fabric of society is quite literally coming apart. There’s widespread corruption. There’s murder; most of the murders are not even reported. The violence is unprecedented and vicious. Now if you were a citizen there, what would you want? I always ask: “Do you want group therapy, or do you want helicopters and flame‑throwers?” “Give me the helicopters and flame‑throwers. I’ll do the evaluation later.”

Ummm…  Yeah.

People argue for drug legalization saying that we can control legal drugs easily: Kids won’t get them. Adults have the right to use and all that. Well, prescription opiates provide one of your best examples of this model. They’re tightly controlled by the FDA and DEA. You can only get them, supposedly, from a doctor’s prescription. Doctors are trained to know when to prescribe and not prescribe. Yet, in what should be an ideal circumstance‑-and there’s obviously known benefits from prescribed opiates–in 16 states prescription drug overdoses are now higher than car fatalities as a cause of death. It’s unbelievable. In my lifetime, I never thought I would see that.

He just doesn’t get it.  Even in a position like his, where he sees it every day, he just cannot wrap his head around the undeniable truth.  As Milton Friedman said, “Prohibitions have no socially desirable effect.”

Tip of the Hat to MasterShake29.