The Awful Truth About Drugs Republicans often say, I would vote Libertarian except that your party encourages drug use. We do not encourage drug use, but we Libertarians have faced an awful truth. Simply put, drug dealing makes huge profits, and where there are huge profits there will always be scum bag profiteers. Let us look at recent history. Back in 1910, heroine which had been available at the dime store was made illegal. Suddenly, we had a population of addicts sneaking around to get their fixes. In the 1930s, we got fed up and started a policy of drug interdiction. This policy worked so well that we created a whole part of the US government devoted just to interdiction of drugs called the DEA. Today, no one is using illegal drugs in this country, and there is no meth amphetamine problem. No one is arrested for cocaine or heroine possession anymore. Our prison system has no one serving time for dealing drugs. It is time to congratulate ourselves and move on to solving the next big social problem. What is that you say? I got my facts wrong? In mental health they tell me the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over expecting a different result. Let us face facts , interdiction is a dismal failure, and, no matter how stiff the sentence there is always another scum bag. to take over. I have never used illegal drugs. I did not experiment in college, and I never forgot to inhale. I like my gray matter too much for that silliness. I think that the only time drugs should be taken is under the care of a responsible doctor. But, I also believe that we will never get a handle on this plague until the government takes the profit out of it. This cannot happen until the supply of drugs is legalized and controlled by the government. I would rather see my local pharmacist sell these drugs, with the profits going into the public coffers, than buy the corner dealer another new Ferrari. Once we get a real handle on the problem, then we can figure out what to do next. Right now, we are just chasing our tails.