Articles that address and dismantle common prohibitionist views.
“If we legalize drugs, addiction will explode, crime will skyrocket, and society will collapse.” That’s the go-to prohibitionist script. You’ve heard versions of it from politicians, police unions, some doctors’ groups, and every moral panic pundit who still thinks it’s 1986 and Nancy Reagan is running science policy. There’s just one problem: when you look…
Prohibitionists love a good scare line. One of their greatest hits: “If we legalize or even decriminalize drugs, addiction will explode and society will collapse.” You’ve heard the script—streets full of zombies, kids instantly hooked, ERs overflowing, morality in ruins. According to this logic, the only thing standing between us and total chaos is a…
“If we legalize drugs, society will collapse. Addiction will explode. Crime will skyrocket. We’ll have chaos.” That’s the prohibitionist greatest hit. It gets trotted out every time someone suggests treating drug use as a health and human rights issue instead of a criminal one. There’s just one problem: reality disagrees. When you actually look at…
“If we legalize drugs, everyone will get addicted and society will collapse.” That’s the go-to prohibitionist argument, usually delivered with a mix of moral panic and zero citations. It’s been used for over a century to justify criminalizing people, militarizing police, and pouring billions into a “war on drugs” that can’t even win a skirmish…
“If we legalize drugs, society will collapse. Addiction will skyrocket. Crime will explode. Kids will start shooting heroin in homeroom.” That’s the prohibitionist fantasy in a nutshell: the idea that any move toward decriminalization or legalization is a one-way ticket to chaos. It’s been repeated for decades — by politicians, police unions, certain media outlets,…
“If we legalize drugs, society will collapse. Addiction will skyrocket. Crime will explode.” That’s the stock prohibitionist script. You’ve heard it from politicians, police unions, and every “won’t somebody think of the children?” pundit who’s never opened a public health study in their life. Here’s the problem: almost none of that fearmongering survives contact with…
“If we legalize drugs, addiction will skyrocket, society will collapse, and our streets will be flooded with zombies.” That’s the prohibitionist greatest hit. You’ve heard it from politicians, police unions, pundits, and the same think-tanks that never met a carceral policy they didn’t love. The story is simple and emotionally loaded: drugs are so dangerous…
This academic article reveals how criminalizing the opium poppy turned medicine into crisis—and how legal cultivation could end the opioid epidemic once and for all. Lessons from Portugal, Switzerland, and history show: prohibition kills, cultivation heals.