Prohibitionism is a crime

Prohibitionism is a fraud; it is the "virtuous" expression of a criminal

political reality.

The imposition of a regime of unchecked violence and illegality; the subjection of economies and legal policies to powerful criminal organizations; the reduction of the police and judiciary to impotent, corrupt and ridiculous bodies; the rampant spread throughout world, of substances that have become profitable, and therefore saleable, precisely because they are prohibited; the enslavement of millions of people, who are placed at the mercy of brutal, bloodthirsty gangs and are "guilty" of consuming "prohibited" substances that are not necessarily more harmful than those that are "authorized" and readily available on the legal market; a "war" regime imposed on the whole of society with extremely grave consequences for the law, freedom, security

and the quality of life...

Prohibitionism is all this; and nothing else. These things are not merely the "cost" of prohibitionism; they are the sole products.

Prohibitionism is a war that does not abide by the rules of conflict; a war in which the majority of victims are innocent civilians. It is an excuse for every kind of tyranny, for the denial of liberties, for the control of individuals by bureaucracies and the police. It is a brutal form of juridical and judicial "militarism"; but highly profitable for the professionals in the drugs business and the anti-drugs business.

Prohibitionism is an unfair and extremely heavy tax levied on the heritage, liberty and safety of citizens. Thanks to prohibitionism, banned drugs are the only goods, the only consumer goods that are generally paid for by the people who do not consume them, but who are robbed of their money - sometimes at gunpoint - so that others can use them.

Prohibitionism is steadily transforming a serious social and health problem, albeit of modest proportions - the spread and consumption of a number of banned drugs - into the most devastating crime phenomenon that developed countries have had to confront, and into a heavy "mortgage" on the civil and economic development of "producer" countries, condemned to obey the logic of a "drugged" market, with the stringency of the war on drugs on the one hand and the profitability of criminal enslavement on the other.

It would be too kind to say that prohibitionism is merely an ineffective and costly policy, a shattered illusion. Like fascism and communism,

prohibitionism can no longer be passed off, after half a century of illusions and failures, as an error committed in good faith, as the product, almost, of a clear conscience.

The "errors" and the failings of prohibitionism are foreseeable disasters - that have in fact been widely foreseen -' horrors that are already evident in the very reasons, ideas and instruments that prohibitionism has used to try and halt the spread of drugs. Prohibitionism is a very bad policy because it is a very bad idea. We must have the courage to admit that in this day and age prohibitionism is not only the wrong policy, but a crime: like fascism and communism. In the same way. For the same reasons.