Fans of the TV crime drama Breaking Bad will recognize the violent images and deaths below. For those living under a rock, Breaking Bad centers on the story of a former high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, who changes his life drastically after discovering he has cancer. He starts to cook the schedule II controlled substance, methamphetamine and becomes involved in a drug cartel that results in many violent and disturbing deaths, like the ones below.
Although Breaking Bad is a fictional story, the violence associated with drug cartels is, unfortunately, very real. According to Bas Van der Bossen of the Bleeding Heart Liberatarians, Drug cartels tend to “to decapitate their rivals, mutilate their corpses and dump them in public places to instill fear into the general public, local law enforcement, and their rivals.” Warning: The images below are actual, very graphic representations of the violence resulting from the War on Drugs
Ending the War on Drugs would mean ending the bloodshed as a result of drug cartels. According to the FBI, there were roughly 400 to 600 drug-related murders annually between 2007 and 2011, which doesn’t even include gang violence. It is has been proven over and over again that prohibition increases violence. Yale Law professor Dan Kahan explains, “Illegal markets breed competition-driven violence among suppliers by offering the prospect of monopoly profits and by denying them lawful means for enforcing commercial obligations.” From human trafficking to death of innocent children, the brutality resulting from illegal drug trade is truly sickening.
There will always be drugs among us and there will always be people who use them, but banning them is not the solution. It is not the government’s responsibility to play the role of strict father to its citizens. By restricting the freedom to do drugs as we please, the government is making the situation worse by causing psychological reactance, a proven theory by Jack Brehm (1966). Taking away our freedoms results in defiance, which is evident through the increased violence that has resulted from the ban and the ironic increased drug usage. The only way to put an end to this corruption of the drug cartels is by getting rid of them and the only way to get rid of them is by ending the War on Drugs and legalizing all drugs.
The Failed War on Drugs 