Blast from the Past: Ron Paul on Drug Policy

Ron Paul apposes the drug war.

Every year, our government—which is to say, the taxpayers—spends $9.2 billion to lock up people who use, produce, or sell illegal drugs. That figure does not include the cost of state or federal law enforcement, or international programs, such as military support and crop-killing in countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan. The total annual cost for the Drug War is roughly $40 billion.

You don't need to approve of drug use to believe that this is financial insanity. We are spending an outrageous amount of money trying to reign in the consequences of a black market created by drug prohibition, and we are demonstrably losing the "war." It is time to recognize that we are making the problem worse by driving it underground.