Arguments For and Against Drug Prohibition

Arguments about the prohibition of drugs, and over drug policy reform, are subjects of considerable controversy. The following is a presentation of major drug policy arguments, including those for drug law enforcement on one side of the debate, and arguments for drug law reform on the other.

Famous quotes containing the words arguments, drug and/or prohibition:

    ‘Tis happy, therefore, that nature breaks the force of all sceptical arguments in time, and keeps them from having any considerable influence on the understanding. Were we to trust entirely to their self-destruction, that can never take place, ‘till they have first subverted all conviction, and have totally destroy’d human reason.
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    While man can still his body keep
    Wine or love drug him to sleep,
    Waking he thanks the Lord that he
    Has body and its stupidity....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    No political party can ever make prohibition effective. A political party implies an adverse, an opposing, political party. To enforce criminal statutes implies substantial unanimity in the community. This is the result of the jury system. Hence the futility of party prohibition.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)