Category:War on Drugs

December 8, 2021 | Post

Legalization makes marijuana safer for consumers, but taxation can undo these benefits, rendering legal markets unable to compete with street dealers

May 21, 2021 | Video

The Prohibition Era is a dark time in US history: bootleggers, corrupt politicians, mafia organizations… It is gone, but alcohol laws are still reminiscence of that time. We realized this only after the pandemic.

In this video, we talked to Jacob Rich, policy analyst of the Reason Foundation/Magazine, discussed the history of alcohol policies in the US and how to improve them for the future.

April 28, 2021 | Video

Two days before Breonna died, we discussed the War on Drugs with Aaron Bosset, founder of the Black Cannabis Commission.

His words are even more relevant today.

The War on Drugs is not about race alone. The welfare state, qualified immunity, police unions, and the effects of these broken institutions all play a part. But it is important for us to give notice to this major piece of the puzzle.

April 28, 2021 | Video

The War on Drugs paved the way for the United States to lay a domestic foundation for a massive and overwhelming system of oppression.

Launched in the United States by former President Richard Nixon in 1971, drug criminalization served as the catalyst for firing an international crusade, strong-arming other countries into criminalizing cannabis whether they wanted to or not.

In this interview with Aaron Bossett, Founder of the Black Cannabis Commission, we answer the following questions:

– Who is Harry J. Anslinger and why did he invent a new ‘public enemy’?
– What discovery helped to reignite the medical marijuana movement?
– How does the War on Drugs continue today, despite seeing an upward trend towards legalization?
– How does state legalization fail to address the harmful effects of the War on Drugs in minority communities?

#4/20 #WarOnDrugs #EndTheDrugWar

April 28, 2021 | Video

The War on Drugs was launched in the United States by former President Richard Nixon in 1971. This allowed for the criminalization of drug use, which led to the mass incarceration of millions of Americans, particularly for communities of color.

Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at Reason magazine, has been writing about drug policy since the 1980s. In this video, he answers the following questions:

How does the War on Drugs give rise to a black market with fatal consequences?
How does the War on Drugs endanger the general public’s privacy?
How does the War on Drugs give police a license to steal your cash?

#WaronDrugs #EndTheDrugWar #DrugPolicy

August 15, 2017 | Post

Last week, Professor Jeffrey Miron joined us on Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” conversation as part of the Learn Liberty Reddit AMA Series. The conversation focused on Dr. Miron’s 30+ years of study on the effects of drug criminalization. Check out some of the highlights below.   GPSBach While there seems to be an emerging consensus on […]

August 4, 2017 | Post

Dr. Miron has written over 100 op-eds and several books, including Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition (2004) and Libertarianism: from A to Z (2010).

December 20, 2016 | Video

According to professor Steve Davies, “In terms of its own goals, the war on drugs is a catastrophic policy failure.” When you create a system that leads to mass incarceration, a network of international crime, and funds terrorism–  without accomplishing what it set out to accomplish– that program should probably be revisited.

December 5, 2016 | Post

December 5, 1933 is a landmark date in American Constitutional history, for it marks the only time that a constitutional amendment has been ratified to repeal another constitutional amendment.

November 18, 2016 | Post

Drug prohibition has failed, but legalizing harder drugs is not the solution.

November 5, 2016 | Post

Here’s the current state of marijuana legalization efforts around the country.

November 2, 2016 | Post

The logic for legalizing marijuana holds true for legalizing “hard drugs” as well.

October 28, 2016 | Post

Automated beer runs, Obamacare’s price tag, and AT&T spying.

October 26, 2016 | Post

A new report from the ACLU and Human Rights Watch details many of the harms associated with the criminalization of drug possession. The most striking finding from the report is that police in the United States arrest more people for marijuana offenses than for all violent crimes combined. The title of the report, “Every 25 […]

October 25, 2016 | Video

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies drugs according to their properties and the level of regulation that should be applied to them. In this clip from Learn Liberty’s live interview with Robby Soave of Reason, Evan and Robby discuss the impact of the DEA’s classification schedule on Americans.

October 14, 2016 | Post

Stranger Things, anarchist Spaniards, and Edward Snowden.

August 8, 2016 | Post

Journalist Dan Baum, in an April 2016 article in Harper’s Magazine, mentions a quote he obtained in 1994 from John Erlichman, President Richard Nixon’s domestic policy advisor, discussing how the War on Drugs was established to disenfranchise the opponents to Nixon’s policies. The Drug War was constructed to allow the administration to disrupt black civil […]

August 4, 2016 | Post

The use of performance-enhancing drugs is thought to violate the notions of fairness, honorable victory, and excellence that are at the heart of sport. Even if doping was not disallowed by the rules, many argue that it would still undermine the very essence of sport. I am not going to challenge those arguments here, though […]

June 24, 2016 | Post

In addition to voting for state and local candidates this Election Day, voters in 14 states will be asked about legalizing marijuana. Reducing marijuana prohibition would be a major step toward ending the “war on drugs,” the government’s campaign against drug usage in the United States. Related: The War on Drugs, Part 1 Declaring a […]

June 23, 2016 | Video

Are SWAT raids and mandatory minimum sentences really the right way for the government to address drug use? Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are talking up legalization, with Trump saying that states should be able to decriminalize drugs without federal interference. Letting more states go the way of Colorado might help with America’s growing […]

April 24, 2016 | Post

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River, serves as the tripoint for the Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. borders, allowing drivers pass through each jurisdiction within a few seconds of each other. This matters for people who smoke pot.

April 23, 2016 | Video

Why do some states have harsher laws against marijuana than others? Is having differing laws between states a good thing? Join Learn Liberty and Professor Alex Kreit to explore how possession of cannabis is treated differently by the jurisdictions of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

February 8, 2016 | Post

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, the celebration of debauchery and vice before the Lenten season begins. For many revelers that means consuming alcohol, tobacco, and drugs – something that is made much more difficult because of counterproductive government regulations. Learn Liberty has a new On Demand program, Vice City, that explains all the ways that the […]

February 1, 2016 | Post

If you haven’t checked us out on Periscope make sure to stay tuned this week, to discuss our new video releases and help us choose our next video! These are our scheduled streams for this week: Monday, February 1st @ 4pm EST – “Vice City – Government regulations and prohibitions of Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes” […]