Fatal Features of the Prohibition Blunder: Damaging Police-Citizen Trust

What qualifies as a crime, and are all crimes created equal? According to Trevor Burrus, ‘drug’ crimes are different than ‘real’ crimes, as ‘real’ crimes have victims who call the police to catch a perp. ‘Drug’ crimes differ in that the victim and criminal are the same person—guilty of the crime of choosing an illegal intoxicant over a legal one. This puts police in a position where they must adopt proactive and often aggressive methods of catching ‘victims’ who happen to also be criminals.

In this way, the classic, Norman Rockwell-esque picture of the friendly neighborhood cop serving up justice to citizens has become a picture of the heavily armed cop serving up citizens to justice.

Read the full article and compare with more recent cases of Prohibition-related police-citizen distrust cases. It is only through effective regulation via legalization that the immoral War on Drugs can be stopped and millions of lives—young and old—can be saved.

Watch our video The Prohibition Blunder: Why America Needs Drug Legalization Now to learn more about the effort to legalize and regulate drugs and how #YourPowerfulVoice is the key to shifting to this winning strategy.

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