What Being “Tough on Drugs” Should Really Mean

Honest criticism of current drug policy should not justify a culture of permissiveness about drug abuse.

We’ve come a long way since the anti-drug crusades of the 1980s, when “say no to drugs” was a moral truism in the same manner as “don’t lie, cheat, and steal.” Now, if you tell anyone under the age of thirty that you think the United States needs to be “tough on drugs,” they are likely to respond with something along the lines of, “Oh, so you support violence, racial oppression, and fiscal irresponsibility?”

In the last twenty years, society has grown to embrace the legalization of drugs, especially marijuana, and the movement shows no signs of slowing down. 61% of Americans now believe that marijuana should be legal, up from just 16% in the late 1980s. Eight states have approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana, while 29 states allow marijuana to be sold for medicinal purposes. Even though federal law has generally proscribed marijuana use since 1970, the Obama Justice Department refused to enforce these prohibitions in states that had independently chosen to allow recreational marijuana use.