The War on Drugs, the Death of Local Politics

The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Commentary Magazine

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.6 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the last day of listener-questions week, we take up the war on drugs. Was it doomed? Have we surrendered? What are the consequences? Then we respond to a listener who challenges Tip O'Neill's famous observation about all politics being local. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the commentary magazine Daily podcast today is Friday, August 25th, 2023.
0:28.9	I'm John Pudhorks, the editor of commentary magazine with me as always executive editor,
0:33.0	A Green Multi-Aid.
0:34.0	Hi, John.
0:35.0	That comedy is out today here with us today, of course, is media commentary columnist,
0:40.4	Christine Rosen, hi, Christine.
0:42.2	Hi, John.
0:43.2	Well, it's the last day of listener mail and it's been a great week, great fun doing this.
0:51.0	And we'll continue to do it on occasion because you guys write such fantastic letters.
0:56.7	And I got a really good one today here from our friend Noah, not our former colleague,
1:03.8	Noah, another Noah.
1:04.8	And also our friend.
1:05.8	And also our friend.
1:06.8	Yes.
1:08.8	For my entire adult life, I've heard that the war on drugs has failed and needs to end immediately.
1:13.9	Public policy seems to have followed this belief in the past decade.
1:17.6	We've seen a continued decolonization of hard drugs and legalization of softer drugs.
1:22.4	The result of this policy seems to be that the US is reaching all-time records of overdose
1:27.2	deaths and our cities becoming littered with drug addicts, has surrendering in the war
1:32.3	on drugs been a bigger failure than the war itself.
1:36.3	As a data point, we're now at over 100,000 overdose deaths a year, while in 1980, approximately
1:44.2	2,492 Americans died from overdoses according to Wikipedia.
	...

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