When the drug war ends

It's inevitable.

Some day soon, Americans are going to recognize the U.S. government's war on drugs has been a total, unequivocal disaster.

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I have explained the failed prohibitionist policy before.

But nobody has done it better than Joel Miller, the author of a new book, "Bad Trip: How the War Against Drugs is Destroying America."

Like most government initiatives, the war on drugs has only exacerbated our problems – increasing crime, infringing civil rights, soaking taxpayers and just generally making a bigger mess of things.

Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

Let's also hope Americans are able to change the government's direction for the better when they realize what is happening.

How would we change the government's direction for the better? Well, let's start with a model we should not follow.

Two years ago, Scotland's "drug czar" declared defeat in that country's war on drugs. Deputy Justice Minister Richard Simpson said he recognized the government is worsening the country's crime problem by driving up the cost of drugs and driving addicts to robbery to feed their habits.

"The only time you will hear me use terms such as 'war on drugs' and 'just say no' is to denigrate them," he said.

But – and here's the danger Americans will face when they come to the same realization – the government in Scotland simply changed tactics. It embarked on a whole new drug war by a different name – one that inevitably proved more costly and more counter-productive than the failed policies of zero tolerance.

The Scottish government shifted focus toward drug education that sounds remarkably like the failed sex-education programs in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"I've never used the term 'teach children how to take drugs,' but what I would say is that we need to provide them with information," said Simpson. "We need to say, 'We'd rather you didn't take ecstasy, but if you make that decision, here are the risks.' We have to give them all the information they need to take responsibility for themselves."

The government also increased funding of methadone programs to hook heroin addicts on a new drug.

Giving mixed signals to kids is not the right approach. Neither is reallocating taxpayer dollars extorted from citizens under false pretenses. That's what government inevitably will do if it is permitted to lead a new failed initiative against drugs.

There are better ways to address the drug problem – which is really not a drug problem at all but a moral and social crisis hitting Western societies that have drifted far from the Judeo-Christian underpinnings that created them.

Government can never take the lead in solving that crisis. It can only be addressed effectively by the churches and the synagogues – whose primary role of setting standards of behavior and in charity and social care has been usurped by government.

Take God out of the equation and, for many, the question of sin becomes, "why not?" The only way the government can answer the question "why not?" is with force and violence. If we've learned one thing in the last 30 years, it should be that government is not and can never be compassionate. It does not work that way. When it tries, it fails. Individuals can effectively express compassion. Churches and synagogues can effectively express compassion. Families can effectively express compassion. Sometimes even small communities can effectively express compassion and positively change people's errant behavior.

Washington cannot.

The drug war, indeed, needs to be ended, but not this way – not with more failed programs of centralized authority.

First, we need to take the profit motive away from the smugglers, street criminals and drug lords. This can be accomplished by selling narcotics through pharmacies by prescription to adults at a small markup over cost.

Second, the regulations over drug sales need to be made much closer to home. States and local communities can do a much better job than Washington – as they can with most programs.

Third – and this is the most important step of all – it's time for the remnant of religious people to shoulder some responsibility. They need to emerge from their own haze of confusion and begin asserting their moral authority by teaching people right from wrong, again. This will not only have beneficial effects in the drug crisis, it is an absolute necessity for free, self-governing people to remain free, self-governing people.