Stop the Violence: Legalize Drugs

The Manhattan Institute's John McWhorter is perhaps best known for his fierce criticism of rap music (though he does enjoy a little Snoop Dogg) and the black left. Lately, however, McWhorter's aim has been focused on a new target: America's destructive and futile War on Drugs. Writing at The New Republic about the tragic murder of a Bronx teenager caught in some gangland crossfire, he presses the case for legalization:

The simple fact is that if there were no profit to be made in selling drugs on the street, no one would bother. For all of the "root causes" reasons so many young black and Latino men turn to this trade instead of seeking legal work, if there were no War on Drugs, they would seek other solutions to the obstacles that face them. And whatever those were, they would involve less murder, fewer crossfire injuries and killings of the kind that have likely ruined Ms. Vasquez' life at 15, fewer men in prison for long periods, and fewer of their children growing up fatherless and on their way to repeating their father's mistakes.

Read the rest here.