December 5th is Repeal Day!

Let’s end the war. Let’s end the war that has lasted over 35 years. Let’s end the war that neither side has a hope of winning. Let’s free the thousands of American prisoners held on US soil. Let’s end the war against ourselves. Like many Americans, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have served on both sides of this war. Let’s end the war on drugs.

Many of this blog’s readers would agree with the slogan “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Well drugs don’t destroy lives. People destroy their own lives. Inanimate objects are not responsible for your actions, be it a gun, a rock of crack, or a Judas Priest album. More people die from heart attacks than drug abuse. Yet we don’t see headlines like “Feds Seize 50 Kilos of Ground Beef.”

Today is Repeal Day. Seventy-five years ago today, the 21st Amendment was ratified, the 18th Amendment was repealed, and America’s favorite drug was legalized. This ended all the alcohol-related violence and corruption that plagued the 1920’s. Alcohol taxes created a new source of government revenue.

There happens to be excise taxes imposed on illegal drugs, but of course hardly anyone pays these taxes. We can create new sources of revenue for cash-strapped state governments while simultaneously lifting a huge burden off of law enforcement and the prison system. Legalizing drugs is the single best thing that Obama can do for the economy.