Radley Balko Drug Prohibition

Drug Prohibition The title of the editorial is “Meth isn’t an argument for prohibition. It demonstrates prohibition’s failure.” and the author of the editorial is Radley Balko. Radley Balko is a reporter for The Washington Post and also The Huffington Post. He reports about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties. Radley is also an author of a book named “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces”. This editorial is targeted to persuade lawmakers and anyone else opposing meth being legal. Lawmakers passed laws that made it more difficult to acquire pseudoephedrine because they believed it would prevent meth from being produced. Several years passed and that clearly is not the case according to several

For example, Rodley mentions that in the year 2005 Nebraska restricted the sale of cold medicine and the number of meth lab seizures fell from 321 in 2004 to just 9 in 2012. Yet eight years after the law took effect, Nebraska law enforcement official still stated that meth was the “single biggest threat”. One drug task force reported that there was a 1,000 percent increase in meth seizures from 2011 to 2013. He then mentions Missouri, another state that also passed a law that requires an ID to purchase cold medicine that contains pseudoephedrine. The state soon passed additional laws further restricting the sale of the medicine. The laws prevented the sale of thousands of boxes of cold medicine. The laws were far from success. “We still have a tremendous meth problem,” said Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force director Mark McClendon, “But it’s importation. That’s where the problem is… There’s still lots of imported meth in the area. It’s very prevalent.” Radley gives fantastic facts because not only does he include statistics, but he also quotes from a reliable source, the drug task

Radley said “ Here’s one idea that makes too much sense for anyone to seriously consider: Legalize amphetamines for adults. Divert some of the money currently spent on enforcement toward the treatment of addicts. Save the rest. Watch the black markets dry up, and with them the itinerant crime, toxicity and smuggling. Cold and allergy sufferers get relief. Cops can concentrate on other crimes. Pharmacists can go back to being health-care workers, instead of deputized drug cops. Everybody wins…” He stated all the benefits that would occur if meth became legal. Rodley logically thought of a solution and expressed it crystal clear. Some readers may feel that this editorial actually is not persuasive because meth is a terrible drug that should be kept illegal and more people would try meth if it becomes legal. But in reality, legalizing meth reveals that the editorial is effective because if we kept the drug illegal that still would not stop a person from desiring and acquiring meth and more people would not try meth because if a person wanted to try meth they would have done it before it became