I found the article “Four decades and Counting” to be very interesting and surprising. I feel as though I was uneducated about the war on drugs and this article was quite englightening. It was interesting to see the parallels between the War on Drugs and Prohibition in the 1920s. Throughout our lives, we are told how awful drugs are and they are only for bad people but I feel as though it is not talked about the amount of money that is circulating in the drug economy. It is interesting to see the detriments that were brought about through the prohibition on drugs. The article discusses how there was a sharp decline in alcohol use after the law was in place but shortly after it spiked back up to the pre-prohibition levels. This highlights the idea that if something is taken away from people they will most likely find a way to have it back and therefore overindulge leading to over-use.
It is interesting to see that Oregon just passed a law decriminalizing all drugs including cocaine and heroin. I am curious to see if this law will be passed in other states. I know that in Boston, there is a big issue with opioid use. Driving through Boston, there is a whole couple of miles that are filled with drug addicts. This is scary to see and I am curious to see the laws that will be passed throughout America decriminalizing drugs.
I also found this article to be incredibly informative and enlightening. I hadn’t known much about the War on Drugs and the problems with prohibition. The continued rise of drug abuse and overdose is a nit frightening and it’s clear we need another way to control it. I never realized the negative effects that prohibition has had, and it is also making me question whether we should decriminalize all drugs like Oregon has done?
I liked how you pointed out the parallels between the War on Drugs and prohibition. I agree that it seems a constant throughout history that people want what they can’t have. If the government delegalizes something black markets and unsafe practices will occur. I think it is interesting that Oregon decriminalized all drugs, I am curious to see how that shakes out for them. If it is successful that I think other states should consider doing the same thing.