War on Drugs is a powerful, well-produced comic that purveys a message that cannabis advocates empathize with.





For some time, Milton Friedman and his fellow economists have witnessed the ills reinforced by the drug war. Crime, the allure of the verboten for uneducated youth and drug addiction would befall the American population and ultimately become a systemic issue via the federal drug war.

Stuart McMillen, Internet cartoonist and social activist, examines Friedman’s theory on the drug war through the medium of cartoon in this new comic: War on Drugs. McMillen pushes beyond the economic incentives to desist drug criminalization and discusses the potential to introduce responsible drug use, and remove the stigmatization of drug culture.

America has established a culture of drug prohibition that led to a legal marketplace for the DEA, the prison-industrial complex and police unions to profit by keeping drug use criminal. Through their efforts to keep drug use a criminal offense, crime manifests and is perpetuated by the highly lucrative underground market. If we remove the laws against drug use, we remove the incredible criminal underground pathology that is reinforced by federal government greed.

Without the war we’ll have lower crime rates, less cultural marginalization and non-users will cease to be affected by the crime America’s drug war engenders. Our children will be more knowledgeable about the effects of drugs and will safely use or possibly abstain. Harder drugs will become regulated, limiting the possibility of ODs or needle-sharing. Taxes taken from legal drug sales could be used to cut the federal deficit, or strengthen our faltering education system. Legalizing drug use is the safer choice. Legalizing cannabis is the first step.

T-Hug | Weedist | Stuart McMillen