What I have learned about the history of drug enforcement in the book, Drug Crazy, is that it started back in 1901 when Teddy Roosevelt became President after McKinley was assassinated. Back then the root of all evil was the saloon, and so it was thought if you got rid of saloon - no get rid of alcohol you “would get dry up the taproot of crime“ (40). “Prohibition laws” were going to be expanding throughout the nation. (40) According to the book, Drug
Crazy, “ It was the collision of social reform and the religious fundamentalism that the narcotic issue to first came to focus in the United States“(40). The Prohibition of liquor caused criminals to be brought together since it was “contraband” they were dealing with. These criminals…show more content… (190). The book refers to
Ethan Nadelmann who states that the main purpose of any “drug policy should be harm reduction cut the damage cause by both drug addiction and drug prohibition“ (191). He continues by saying, that “marijuana must be available to adults under tight controls and some form of drug maintenance” has to be made for the incurable.(191). The book states that “the only way to destroy the “black market” is make it bid less than its worth and make it less important. Mike
Gray states, if that means drugs have to be given away to serious addicts,” we should do it (191).
He proposes that by having a strongly held regulated “legal market, “offering clean,” pure drugs would “instantly” end the “cash flow the “street” market and to the “river of money that has fueled most” of the ruthless illegal drug cartels “in the “history of the world would dry up” (192).
The author believes that addicts get their drugs “from a pharmacist.” (192). He proposes that
“the one surefire way to cut down on drug use is to give people the facts and let them use