"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana 1863 - 1952

"In the beginning of a change, The Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and  scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."

Mark Twain   1835 - 1910

Déjà vu: Ignoring history to repeat it

 The flaws of the current drug war have doomed past efforts as well.

Within this century, Americans abandoned a different drug war after citizens everywhere began to realize it created more problems than it solved. Proponents sometimes referred to the prohibition of alcohol between 1920-1933 as the "noble experiment." Bars were closed down and the sale of alcohol became illegal. Predictable results included:

 * An increase in violence

 * Decreasing respect for the law

 * Increases in corruption

 * Increases in the potency and danger of alcohol consumed

 * A boom in the organized crime business

 To summarize, prohibition maximized the harm associated with alcohol.

 The disaster of alcohol prohibition wasn't the first attempt to eradicate the use of intoxicating substances. For almost as long as man has been using drugs, pioneering prohibitionists have tried to stop drug use. Dozens of failed attempts to stop the use of drugs have been cataloged, including the burning of coffee supplies in 16th century Egypt, and the execution of tobacco users in 17th century Russia. None of them succeeded.  

"He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave."  William Drummond      1776-1828

"To stay experimentation in things social and economic is a grave responsibility. Denial of the right to experiment may be fraught with serious consequences to the nation.  

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."

 Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis  1856-1951

           Carrie Nation   1846 - 1911