Q&A: Is It Time to End the War on Drugs?
with John McWhorter
Last year, my conversation with Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual, which focused on law enforcement and the police, generated a lot of comments, most of them positive. In the subsequent Q&A, a viewer asked John and I to take up the issue of the War on Drugs. When police stop arresting low-level offenders—or even looking for small amounts of drugs—will that help or harm the communities in which those drugs are found? John and I don’t quite see eye to eye on this one. Check out this clip and let me know where you come down.
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If John wants to decriminalize drugs, he needs to first visit Portland, Oregon, which has become a living hell since we decriminalized all drugs. Actually in the past few weeks the NYT has finally started doing good reporting on this. You cannot walk a block without inhaling second hand fentanyl smoke and it is not unusual for their to be as many as four lethal overdoses in a 24 hour period. We have attracted addicts from all over the country and crime has skyrocketed. Quality of life has crashed and homelessness is among the worst anywhere. Although we are much smaller than San Fran, last year we had more homicides than that (very messed up) city did. Most fentanyl smokers have been Narcan'd back to life over 2 dozen times.
Drugs have changed. This is not as simple as John says of "addiction rates will rise." They will SKYROCKET and it's not "addiction rates," it is really sad, horrible deaths. This is not a fair price to pay for a more productive discussion of race. You will see women pathetically screaming, "I'll blow you for $5." It is horrific.
And, most importantly, I am not convinced that there is a treatment that is effective for fentanyl or the current form of meth. It seems vital instead to cut the supply and prevent new addicts. I don't think many fentanyl addicts live more than about 24 months. Do not let your city become the guinea pig that Portland Oregon is. Certainly not in the name of limiting interactions between cops and people of color
Maybe the wiser course of action is to end the war on drugs in the United States, but as others have noted doing so certainly has consequences for the quality of life in our major cities. In any case, I feel like it's worth pointing out that countries like Singapore have some of the most draconian drug laws in the world both against drug use and drug selling/trafficking. Yet Singapore is probably one of the nicest places in the world and I'm not under the impression that there's any lack of trust between the police and the general populace.
Based on what I've seen and read, I'd much rather live in Singapore than Portland if given a choice between the two.