Why Every Libertarian Should Invest in Cannabis The War on Drugs is Working in Government Fashion

The federal war on drugs in the United States is the quintessential government program. It not only does not work as stated, but it actually accomplishes the exact opposite of its stated intentions.

To start off, like most government programs, the federal war on drugs is unconstitutional. This function is nowhere mentioned in the enumerated powers listed in the Constitution. As stated by the 10th Amendment, it should be left to the individuals or states. If drugs are going to be illegal at all, it should be done strictly at the state or local level.

The war on drugs is supposed to take drugs off of our streets. Instead, it is doing the exact opposite. It puts drugs on the streets. It also makes them far more dangerous in terms of potency and mixtures.

The drug war is supposed to keep drugs away from kids. But the drug dealers push drugs on kids for profit. It is only profitable because they are illegal. There would be no black market if they were legal. There would be no severe markup in prices if they were legal.

It may be hard to believe, but drugs wouldn’t be on the streets if they were legal. They would be sold in a drug store. Cocaine and heroin used to be sold in stores a long time ago. Bayer and other companies sold heroin.

But just as many legal drugs are misused or abused today, a small percentage of people did that 100 years ago with cocaine and heroin, although there weren’t many drug addicts running around back then. Some drugs eventually became illegal. And when something is illegal, it requires the use of force to enforce the law.

If drugs were legal, we wouldn’t see the level of violent crime as we do now. You wouldn’t have gang shootouts in the streets. The beer and wine companies of today don’t settle their disputes and mark their territory using guns. This happened during the Prohibition era, when alcohol was illegal.

The war on drugs has made our streets far less safe. It is quite realistic to think that violent crime would drop in half if drugs were legalized.

Again, this is another unintended consequence. In order to keep our kids safe, the drug war has caused violent chaos on the streets and drug dealers pushing drugs onto kids at schools.

Before the War on Terror

The war on terror is now used as a continual excuse to expand government. It enables the government to spy on its own people. You are now guilty until proven innocent in many cases. It is all in the name of keeping us safe. It is a great follow-up to the war on drugs.

While we focus on civil liberties, which we should, there is a financial aspect that does not get enough attention. The war on drugs – and now you can include the war on terror as well – has basically made it a crime to deal in significant amounts of cash.

Many people and businesses use cash for legitimate purposes. Yet, if you are “caught” with a lot of cash, you are assumed to be a drug dealer or doing something wrong. Is anyone allowed to have privacy of any kind any longer?

There are any number of reasons why people use cash. They might not trust the banking system. They may find it easier to budget using cash. They may just not have a lot of money and do not have access to a bank account. There are still about 7 percent of households in the U.S. without any kind of bank account.

A major abuse of governments and law enforcement that is becoming more widely known is civil asset forfeiture laws that allow law enforcement agencies to take people’s property because they suspect it is being used for criminal activity. If you have a lot of cash in your car, this might be enough for them to take your money and your car. And then you get to pay the legal fees if you want to even attempt to get it back.

Did you think my above statement about “guilty until proven innocent” was overdramatic? It sure isn’t for those who have actually experienced the wrath of civil asset forfeiture.

And not only is it unjust, with no place in a free society, but it also means more money for those who seize it. It helps the agencies fund their budgets. So the incentive for them is to do more of it.

A few states have taken some good measures to limit this injustice. States such as Montana, New Mexico, and Nebraska have passed measures that require someone to be convicted of a crime before their assets can actually be seized.

Some cities in New Mexico are not abiding by the law. The Institute for Justice is suing the cities. At least there are some organizations out there looking out for the little guy.

It is not clear if this practice of civil asset forfeiture is more widespread than ever, or if we are just more aware of it than ever. That is one of the many blessings of the Internet. It makes people more aware of these injustices. Video cameras on smartphones help too.

While everyone wants to be safe, nobody should be quick to give up their liberty, along with everyone else’s, just in the name of safety. It often ends up punishing the innocent, while the guilty continue on with their activities.

One way to ensure that less and less innocent folks are harassed in the name of the drug war is to support efforts that can help dismantle the drug war. Investing in cannabis legalization is certainly proving to be the most effective thus far.

By investing in legal cannabis stocks, you allow the market – not the government – to alleviate attacks on personal liberty. And the upside is that you can actually make a lot of money in the process.

You see, it's not a bunch of hippies and millennials with dreadlocks that are convincing individual states to legalize. It's the economics. It's job creation, it's financial security for local economies, it's the revitalization of disparate communities that have been affected by violence as a result of the war on drugs.

There's no doubt. Like pretty much everything, it's the basic fundamentals of free market capitalism that offer real solutions to some of our biggest problems. And that's why we recently published a research report called, Marijuana Outlook: Stocks to Buy in 2016.

Not only do we want to help end the war on drugs, but we want to profit in the process. You can download the report for free by clicking this link.