Legalizing Drugs,William Buckley And Making Pragmatism Sexy Again

The father figure of conservatism in America, William Buckley recently died at the age of 82. Interestingly, I got to know about him only at the news of his death. Since then, I found myself watching his videos on youtube and reading articles.

There are a couple of finer points about Buckley that I want to observe before we move on to the purpose of this post. He was a great debater with a very wry sense of humor and wrote enormous number of books and articles published in National Review and otherwise. For him a conservative seeks to be grounded in reality, in things that work rather than how things ought to be. This meant minimal government and a level headed,albeit strong, foreign policy. He opposed the recent surge in Iraq when the conservative movement across America cheered for it.

The irony of the conservative movement is reflected by the departure from the original thought that the movement experiences in present day America. Today, conservatism stands for a bullish foreign policy and more government with respect to enforcement(reflected in the support that acts like Patriot Act have got). Probably, 9/11 changed a lot of America in a profound way but by the very definition of conservatism, it should be possible to find solutions grounded in reality with minimal engagement from the government.

Lets explore an interesting issue...drug legalization. I am pasting a youtube video which is part 1 of a series of 3 videos you can find on the site. In this 1996 interview with Richard Heffner, Buckley contends that drugs should be legalized. This position today is considered to be the position of liberal Hollywood type of self destructive hippies!!! Buckley contended for legalization based on the economics of enforcement and if the estimated 125 billion dollars spent on enforcement at that time could be better spent somewhere else. He goes on to contend that despite a declared war on drugs, it was time to pull away like American did in pulling away from Vietnam and pulling away from prohibition. Now keep in mind, a conservative seeks to be grounded in reality. And the reality is that enforcements has created a black market and smugglers who can profit out a drug which cost much less in a pharmacy store. Since drugs are prohibited, they create a gap between supply and demand. The reality is also that it is not really difficult to get marijuana or cocaine if you have the money to pay for it.He also contends, with numbers, that as many as 95% of the people who did try drugs ended up not becoming addicts and there seems to be no reason to believe that legalization would push this percentage or number of addicts. If that be the case, why not legalize, spend some money on rehabilitation program for addicts and spend the remaining lot on constructive programs.

American prison population is an example of excessive enforcement. It takes more money to house a prisoner in jail then to fund 4 years of college education for an average American!!! And there are examples where you could argue for prohibition, if you support prohibition on drugs, on adultery and alcohol as well. The only reason it is not done is the excessive cost of needless enforcement. As Buckley said about adultery:" What would you do? Go and open up every motel room to see what is going on behind closed doors?".