Fourth, the drug laws are responsible for widespread social upheaval. The drug laws have turned our cities into battlefields and upended the normal social order. Drug prohibition has created a criminal subculture in the inner cities. The immense profits involved in a black-market business make drug dealing the most lucrative endeavor for many people, especially those who care least about getting on the wrong side of the law. Drug dealers become the most visibly successful people in inner-city communities, the ones with money, and clothes, and cars.
Social order is turned upside down when the most successful people in a community are criminals.
The drug war makes peace and prosperity virtually impossible in inner cities. Fifth, the drug laws break up families. Too many parents have been separated from their children because they were convicted of marijuana possession, small-scale sale of drugs, or some other nonviolent offense. Will Foster used marijuana to control the pain and swelling associated with his crippling rheumatoid arthritis. He was arrested, convicted of marijuana cultivation, and sentenced to 93 years in prison, later reduced to 20 years.