The global war on drugs has failed, and existing laws must be changed, Branson says. War on drugs a costly fiasco

As the eyes of the world watch the U.S. government shutdown, leaving as many as 800,000 of its employees without pay, I find myself dumbstruck that one of the agencies that is still showing up for work is the Drug Enforcement Administration. The agents of the DEA are described as “essential” employees going about their daily business of fighting the global war on drugs. And yet, as a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, it is clear to me and many others that the war on drugs is failing and is also costing the U.S. taxpayer more than $50 billion a year. How can this possibly make economic sense at a time of such financial uncertainty? The answer: It doesn’t.

What would make sense is a more humane approach in dealing with existing drug laws. The Global Commission on Drug Policy brings a science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and societies. In Geneva last week, I joined a panel discussion with the former presidents of Brazil and Switzerland and the former foreign minister of Norway. Our message was unanimous — yes, drugs are a complex and controversial issue, but our voices are just part of an increasing chorus of lawmakers and leaders who all agree: The global war on drugs has failed, and existing laws must be changed.


I am delighted to see how that thinking is also gaining hold in the United States, with high-ranking government officials from the attorney general to senators on Capitol Hill calling for a new way we view existing drug laws. Speaking at the American Bar Association meeting in San Francisco in August, Attorney General Eric Holder made a major step in the right direction. Holder announced he was ordering federal prosecutors to stop seeking maximum punishments for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. His acknowledgement that “too many Americans go to too many prisons for too long for no good law enforcement reason,” didn’t come a minute too early, given that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with more 2.5 million drug offenders behind bars, and nearly 5 million people on probation and parole. These numbers are shocking on many levels.

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Just last month there was another hopeful sign that U.S. laws are being given a second look, when the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first-ever meeting on existing federal and state marijuana laws. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) rightly pointed out that the current laws pose “significant obstacles” and that criminalization “has contributed to our nation’s soaring prison population and has disproportionately affected people of color.” At the same time, the state of California is considering the most significant sentencing reform ever to pass out of its Legislature: The bill would allow possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use to be charged as a misdemeanor instead of an automatic felony. If passed, it would coincide with the reinstatement of federal funding for community-based drug treatment.

Prosecution and incarceration are also a drag on the budget. Housing an inmate costs more than $100,000 a year. Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest that money in the right medical care and assistance to wean drug users off drugs and enroll them in rehabilitation programs that would get them on the right track within society?

Of course, it’s great to see that more than 20 states, as well as the District of Columbia, now allow the medical use of marijuana, but if current illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco, the annual tax revenue of that drug legalization would be more than $40 billion. The Drug Policy Alliance estimates the annual revenue California alone would raise, if it taxed and regulated the sale of marijuana, at close to $1.4 billion. This makes a lot of economic sense, not to mention common sense, to me.

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We at the Global Commission on Drug Policy — whose members include former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Secretary of State George Shultz — acknowledge that no country has come up with a fully satisfactory set of policies. Yet the polarizing debate between legalization and prohibition blocks progress. In many countries, repressive policies remain firmly in place. Hence the need to engage many actors — legislators and policymakers, scientists and health professionals, educators, law enforcement officers, parents and the young — in a constructive debate about viable alternatives, both at the national and international levels. This is a huge opportunity for America to lead by example.

A documentary, “Breaking the Taboo,” lays out these facts and succinctly explains why the war on drugs has failed so spectacularly over the past four decades. I’m in Washington this week to screen this film and chair a panel discussion on improving existing drug laws, which I consider one of the key policy challenges of our time.

As a businessman, I can say the war on drugs has not been a good investment. The current drug laws cost too much money and are destroying lives. As the old adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But this global war on drugs is badly broken, and it needs to be fixed. The time is now.

Sir Richard Branson is founder of Virgin and sits on the board of the Global Commission on Drug Policy based in Geneva, Switzerland.