Walter Block's Drug Prohibition

The paper “Drug Prohibition: A Legal and Economical Analysis” by Walter Block agues for the legalization of addictive drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It argues that there are no “market failures” which could justify the banning of these drugs, and also that, just like our current systems precursor the alcohol prohibition, the criminalization of these drugs increases crime, decreases respect for our law, and creates great social uproar. The main sections of this paper look at many sides of the argument. The second section of the article argues on the economical side, third being the libertarian view of law, fourth being objections and their rebuttal and finally the fifth, being an analysis of the benefits of legalization.
A free
Self responsibility is one of the major aspects of this type of law; it allows an individual to do anything to his or her body that they please. It is the individuals property and “homestead”. No one should have any control over another’s body, doing so it taking away their naturally born rights. This philosophy drawls many parallels between drug legalization. The legalization of drugs would only directly affect individuals who were willing to participate themselves. Taking away someone’s ability to participate in this sense is the taking away of their “libertarian rights”. As block points out, the current government system takes away or rights to do with our bodies as we please and free choice. It is a form of modern day slavery on some
From a Decrease in crime, better health protection and civil liberties the benefits would be tremendous. Legalization would take vast profits out of underground dealers. This crime is estimated to account for about 50% of the total in urban America. Dealers, drug gangs and more organized groups such as the cartel would virtually loose all of their power upon legalization. This decrease in crime would allow for less government spending on police and efforts to halt drug use. This would allow much better allocations of these finances. Block talks about how, for example, this money could be put towards medicinal research and could help millions of people. Legalization would help people beyond medicinal reasons, one being that civil liberties would be preserved. As stated, drugs are a victimless crime which causes our police force to take away your individual rights to solve these crimes. As you can see from a decrease in crime to the preservation of civil liberties the legalization of drugs would be a great feat in our nations advance. Walter Blocks article clearly demonstrates