Silver Bullet Solution
About This Book
The War on Drugs lies at the heart of America's opioid epidemic, its mass incarceration, and instability abroad. James E. Gierach argues that legalizing and controlling drugs is the remedy, contending that decades of prohibition have failed and that ending it would restore justice and public health. He calls this the Silver Bullet Solution and maintains that it would ease a dozen interlocking crises. The book speaks to readers troubled by fentanyl overdoses, gang and gun violence, and punishment that falls unevenly by race. It also links the migration of people from South and Central America to corruption and gang violence that Gierach traces to drug-prohibition laws in those countries. He notes that more than 100,000 Americans are shot each year, and that survivors' medical bills push up the cost of care, a burden he connects to the health coverage debate regardless of whether a plan is called Obamacare, Trumpcare, or single-payer. Gierach also addresses readers frustrated that marijuana remains illegal in their country and the fact that America's incarceration rate has earned it the reputation of the world's leading jailer. He points out that United Nations drug-control conventions require 186 nations to enact prohibition laws. Drawing a parallel to alcohol Prohibition and the gangsters who profited from it, he argues that cartels and dealers benefit from prohibition in the same way, making it the common thread behind many of the crises he describes. The author contends that the sixty-five-year-old war on drugs should be abandoned, and that society must break its dependence on the profits of that war in order to heal.
ISBN: 9781592113385
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