Video: Who are the real victims of the War on Drugs?

One major opportunity cost from the war on drugs, as explained by Professor of Criminal Law Alex Kreit, is the justice system.

From LearnLiberty.org (hat tip Cafe Hayek)

Fewer than half of all violent crimes were resolved in 2011, but over 7 million people are serving time in U.S. prisons. The majority of prisoners were arrested on drug charges, and 81 percent of those are in prison for simple possession. While the United States spends billions of dollars and millions of man hours fighting a war on drugs, 59 percent of rapists and 36.2 percent of murderers are never brought to justice. What do we get for that time and money? It has never been easier to buy drugs. The war on drugs isn't working, and victims and survivors of violent crimes deserve more thorough investigations. Whatever your stance on drug policy, Prof. Alex Kreit says, shouldn't we allocate resources to provide for investigations for all violent crimes? Shouldn't victims come first? Who are the real victims of the war on drugs? What do you think should be done about it?

Quote of the Day: Criminals Write the Rules, Good People Go to Jail

Throughout it all, despite so many taxpayer bailouts and the damage that their fractional reserve system has caused to the global economy, the banking elite has still managed to maintain its wealth and status.

Sure, the oddball Madoff or Rajaratnam case occasionally surfaces, but for the most part, not a single member of the banking elite has been charged with a crime.

You know who has been charged with a crime, though? Gary Harrington. In case you haven’t heard of this criminal mastermind, Mr. Harrington was recently sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $1,500 for a most heinous crime against humanity.

His transgression? NINE misdemeanor convictions of collecting rainwater on his private property. That’s right… this vile miscreant had the felonious intent to set up rainwater collection systems on his private property to capture water that falls freely from the sky… an obvious violation of Medford, Oregon’s 1925 law which awards ALL water to the government.

So Gary Harrington goes to jail for collecting rainwater. And every single banker who has been complicit in defrauding billions of people around the world walks freely on the streets. Or rather drives freely on the streets in their Maseratis.

There are countless other stories of what I call the ‘criminalization of existence’– people like Gary getting abused by the state for the most innocuous activities. There are so many laws, rules, policies, and regulations on the books, you can hardly breathe without violating one of them.

And yet, despite all of these rules and regulations, there’s not a single one that can be brought against those who lie, cheat, steal, and collude to defraud the entire world.

This is the nature of democracy today. It is the criminals who write the rules and the good people who go to jail.

This is from Simon Black at the Sovereign Man. Today’s justice system has been dictated by the political class and their cronies.

Quote of the Day: Private Arbitration

Enter 21st century technology: there’s a relatively new service called Judge.Me, an online arbitration service whose decisions are legally binding in 146 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe… and yes, including the US, Canada, and Western Europe.

At just $299, disputes can be settled in a matter of days, and the firm’s case history shows that 96% of all arbitration awards have been honored.

This is the sort of thing that makes me very excited– the private sector displacing the public sector. And there’s going to be a lot more of it coming.

The more insolvent governments become, the more they’re going to be forced to axe all the things they can’t afford. We’re already starting to see this in places from California to England that can no longer hide from their fiscal reality.

With the government monopoly out of the way, the private sector will mop up every service that it can turn a profit on– trash collection, security, fire, prisons, libraries, etc. This forces competition, higher quality service, and lower prices for everyone.

The people who protest against austerity, or think it’s a tragedy when a courthouse closes down due to budget constraints, are really missing the larger point: the sooner this corrupt house of cards collapses, the better off we’ll all be.

Another gem from the maverick Simon Black at the Sovereign Man.

This serves as another example or evidence of how the information age has been transforming our lives and that will lead to decentralization.