Like most advocates of drug prohibition, Pfaff completely ignores the enormous and innumerable social costs of criminalizing drugs. He seems unfazed by the fact that the incarceration and criminalization of drug users devastates millions of families every year, distracts law enforcement officers from more serious crimes and creates a vast and corrosive black market that spans the globe.
Apparently he thinks all of this can be simply swept under the rug, because he buys into the prohibitionist myth that criminalization curbs drug use. If that were true, then the United States would have the lowest drug usage rates in the world - instead we have the highest. Any academic who studies the issue will tell you the same thing: Prohibition and harsh criminal penalties have no significant effect on drug use.
That's why alcohol prohibition was repealed - it didn't get rid of alcohol, it simply made the problem of alcohol abuse much worse.
It's ironic that Pfaff brings up underground chemical labs, because in fact drug criminalization is directly responsible for these problems. The vast majority of overdose deaths are preventable. If people didn't fear criminal prosecution, they would be much more likely to call for help in emergency overdose situations. If drugs were decriminalized and regulated, users would be able to know exactly what they were putting into their body. But regulation is impossible if drugs are prohibited and criminalized. In order to reduce the harms associated with drug use and production, we must repeal criminal penalties, remove drugs from the black market, and place them in a safety-oriented context where treatment and mental health options are readily available.
The growing consensus among world leaders is that drug use is a symptom rather than a cause of social degeneration. By using incarceration to address the issue of drugs, we are simply fanning the flames of criminality, poverty and addiction while ignoring the sources of these problems in the first place. It's time to put an end to the red herrings and the fear-mongering. We should instead foster a constructive dialogue about how to begin regulating drugs in more comprehensive and sensible way.
