Roe v. Wade Turns Forty

Norma McCorvey, plaintiff, "Jane Roe," in Rove v. Wade

Today is the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that has done little to settle the question of abortion in American society. OTR abhors the practice along with the decision guaranteeing its universal right, and he would have opposed a decision ensuring its universal denial as well. From a legal perspective, he believes a decision on this matter is best reserved for the states. The best decision, however, does not reside in the courts at all for this is a matter reserved for the heart.

The American experiment has a rather questionable record when it chooses the legal extremes of universal permission or denial in moral matters. Two glaring examples of failure in this arena include the prohibition of alcohol (1919-1933) and the so-called War on Drugs (1914-present, but enhanced since 1970). Although Roe v. Wade brought, among other outcomes, access and safety to the practice of abortion, it gave rise to program abuse, deep social division, and the ethnic cleansing of black America that, sadly, rivals the best intentions of the eugenics movement of a century ago. Indeed, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

This is an emotional issue - "a matter reserved for the heart" - and its subjective nature arouses broad opinion. William Katz has a post at Urgent Agenda that shares/shadows the observations above.  Our friends at Real Clear Politics have provided links to Jeffrey Toobin's comments in The New Yorker and those of Gail Collins from The New York Times. The editors at National Review also spoke on the issue earlier today.

More Calls For Change In America's War On Drugs

Official poster from the 1942 film

The federal government of the United States spent over $15,000,000,000 on the "War on Drugs" in 2010. The modern war has cost hundreds of billions of dollars over three decades, incarcerated millions of non-violent drug offenders, and killed thousands of innocent victims. It is a huge price to pay for a few tactical successes and an elusive victory on a national scale if one can be identified at all. In the past decade, there has been a growing chorus calling for a reevaluation of this costly and futile policy. Earlier this month, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie became the latest high profile individual to declare this well-intentioned program a failure.

National Review Online's Rich Lowery provides coverage and commentary here. Thanks to CSPAN3, a video of Christie's remarks can be viewed here beginning at 26:15 in the program.

Our Drug War: A "Hideously Expensive...Protracted Failure."

As his long-time readers know, OTR favors the legalization of cannabis in the United States and is pleased to share thoughtful observations on the reasons why our policy needs to change. Today, Conrad Black posted an article in National Review Online that is worth sharing. His theme:

There is room for legitimate argument about what course the U.S. should follow in drug-control policy, but there is no possible dispute that the present course has been such an unmitigated failure that it has aggravated the societal problem, strained relations with friendly foreign countries and destabilized some, and, as Milton Friedman said in 1991, constituted a protectionist bonanza for the most virulent and sociopathic elements of organized crime.

Some of his statistics are astounding. For example, annual cannabis consumption in the nation is a $140 billion industry, and 44,000,000 pounds of it comes from Mexico. And drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed 28,000 victims in the last four years. Furthermore, for American blacks the chances of being arrested, charged, and convicted of a cannabis offense is 300% greater than for whites. It seems our enforcement focuses on the least defensible consumer/producer while enriching the drug cartels with tens of billions of dollars every year. This reality should shock every American, but it doesn't. It's barely registering as an issue in the 2010 election and the entrenched enforcement industry it created keeps rolling on with the most marginal of impacts.

After forty years of such madness, OTR thinks it's time for a new direction.

Decriminalizing Most Illegal Drugs: Another Take

The late, great soul of the U.S. conservative movement, William F. Buckley, Jr., began advocating for the legalization of most drugs in the late 1990s. He recognized that our "war on drugs" was a massive strategic failure from many perspectives ranging from public health to government intrusion. Outside the Beltway has an interesting take on legalization and one of its immediate effects, increasing life expectancy, as well as its impact on the concept of nationalized health care.