A Bundle of Peaceful Compromises

Abstract

Despite years of obvious failure, the U.S. government is, tragically, expanding its War on Drugs. But there are peaceful compromises that can limit this hopeless conflagration. Four basic principles are proposed, as well as a number of more specific possibilities. The basic principles are these: 1) Recognize the futility of the very concept of a war on drugs; 2) Medicalize marijuana and heroin to ease the suffering caused by cancer, glaucoma and other serious diseases; 3) Experiment with various forms of decriminalization or legalization of recreational drugs and 4) Invest billions in new treatment methods and treatment research. Actions such as these can heal some of the wounds already created by the drug war and, at the same time, ameliorate the very problems that the drug war has unsuccessfully attempted to solve.

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