What about the 'war on drugs' and libertarians?

Welcome to Ask a Libertarian with Reason's Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. They are the authors of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.

Go to http://declaration2011.com to purchase, read reviews, find event dates, and more.

On June 15, 2011 Gillespie and Welch used short, rapid-fire videos to answer dozens of reader questions submitted via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Reason.com. In this episode, they answer the question:

"What does a libertarian think about the 'war on drugs' and how do we change it?"

For the complete series, go to http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/10/ask-a-libertarian and Reason.tv's YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/reasontv

Produced by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein, Josh Swain, with help from Katie Hooks, Kyle Blaine and Jack Gillespie.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• reason
• reason.com
• reason.org
• reason.tv
• nick gillespie
• matt welch
• drugs
• war on drugs
• libertarian
• ask a libertarian
• declaration of independents
• reason magazine
• reason foundation

[felpaluche]

It is still ongoing, I suppose.

[iedhunter44]

Only a Global legalization would probably end the violence brought on by drug dealers because witha globalized society local drug dealers can still make money by shifting their product overseas.

[777denny1]

Help to STOP the evil War on Drugs by keeping this issue hot and current on your youtube home page Thanks for all your help, 777denny

[rubbersole79]

Contact your representatives and tell them you hope they have the good common sense to vote for Ron Pauls bill H.R. 5842, ending the prohibition on cannabis.

Address of Senator and Representative of United States

Name of Senator

U.S. Senate

Washington D.C. 20510

Name of Representative

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington D.C. 20515

Or call U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121

[LibertarianChristian]

lol, at the start I couldn't see Nick's arm, lol, try just looking at his face, he's only got one arm! :O

[2dogarage]

David Bowie is part of the caffeine generation? Who knew?

Nice gryphon on the bookshelf.

Wait, when you talk about the mainstream backlash are you talking about the X-Libertarian Ron Paul? Give me a fuckin break.

Nice effort anyway, the war on drugs is a war on the people.

We should all be allowed enough rope to hang ourselves and the "authorities" be damned. "I" am all the authority I need.

[FedCURE]

You make excellent points arguing the "right to use" and that no sane person in the country would argue that the "War on Drugs" is and has been nothing more then a failure. History will not treat those policy makers responsible for it kindly. That said, the issue before us to day is how do we dismantle the "War on Drugs" industry? Ending the "War on Drugs" today means tens of thousands of people loose their jobs and corporate shareholders watch their shares go to zero. FedCURE

[FedCURE]

You make excellent points arguing the "right to use" and that no sane person in the country would argue that the "War on Drugs" is and has been nothing more then a failure. History will not treat those policy makers responsible for it. That said, the issue before us to day is how do we dismantle the "War on Drugs" industry? Ending the "War on Drugs" today means tens of thousands of people loose their jobs and corporate shareholders watch their shares go to zero. FedCURE

[TheSlaveKeyboardist]

It is coming and I can't wait

[Toestubber]

It's nice to see Matt Welch dropping the snark a bit and getting passionate about the immorality of the WOD. Refreshing, really. (Maybe it was the caffeine!) I think this describes the #1 defining issue of the libertarian movement. Drug prohibition is an incredibly destructive political, moral, legal and economic poison that's been spread through once-civilized societies.