“Prohibition Theater” and “The Iron Law of Prohibition”

Jeffrey A. SingerA May 18 opinion column in theWall Street Journal by Joseph Grogan and Casey B. Mulligan titled “Fentanyl Overdose Rates Are Rising Fast” argued that to better address the overdose crisis, the Biden administration should tighten border security, give law enforcement better tools to combat the drug trade, toughen sentencing, and add illicit fentanyl and its analogs (easily created in clandestine labs) to the Drug Enforcement Admini stration’s Schedule 1 (“no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse ”), joining cannabis, LSD, heroin, MDMA (“ecstasy”) and other drugs widely attainable in the black market. I call this last proposal “prohibition theater.”From the article:Because fentanyl is so lethal, the Trump administration ’s Drug Enforcement Agency temporarily placed all of its analogs—such as carfentanyl, acetylfentanyl, butyrfentanyl, and others yet to be invented—into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. This prevented drug cartels, which are incredibly entrepreneurial, from tweaking the chemical composition of the drugs to get around prosecution. Congress is working to update the Controlled Substances Act so that the scheduling can become permanent. But under pressure from nearly 100 civil ‐​rights groups again asserting that using law enforcement to stop fentanyl is racist, the Biden administration is frustrating the Congressional effort by insisting on weak fentanyl sentencing.Mullig...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs