In my July Diary I passed a comment about the oxymoronic nature of the phrase “social liberal,
fiscal conservative.” Among the examples I offered to show how social
liberalism always ends up with more state power and state expenditure, I
cited the liberalization of drug laws, with the attendant costs in
treatment, counseling, and social disorder. This brought out the
drug-legalization crowd, arguing that the costs (i.e. in police, jails, and
so on) of the “war on drugs” far exceeds what we would have to pay as a
result of complete liberalization. I am, of course, deeply skeptical about
this. I am a conservative, with a rather low opinion of human nature, and I
think drug legalization would be a horrible disaster. However, I don’t know
any way I could prove this. But what about the liberalizers? Can they
actually prove THEIR case, numerically? Has anyone ever attempted to
quantify the costs on each side of the equation–”drug war” expenditures
versus the costs–actual dollar costs–of liberalization? I don’t even see
how it could be done convincingly, but I am open to persuasion. Anyone got
actual numbers on this?