From Publishers Weekly
Many see the war on drugs as one of
the best examples of government policy run amok, which makes it a
natural target for libertarian polemic. WorldNetDaily.com columnist
Miller’s vigorous denunciation approaches the issue as a problem in
economics. Given insatiable demand for drugs, he says, government
attempts to strangle the supply simply raise the price and make
trafficking enormously profitable. Criminalization therefore generates
irresistible incentives to break the law, and is itself the cause of
the crime and violence for which drugs are unfairly blamed. Junkies
steal and hook to get money for a fix. Drug profits fuel murderous turf
battles to control the black market, which is a cash cow for the gangs,
guerilla armies and terrorists who dominate it. Interdiction efforts
are more than matched by the ingenuity of traffickers, Miller says, and
the police themselves are often corrupted, either by involvement in the
trade itself or by the increasingly intrusive, violent and militarized
methods they must use to suppress a "crime" in which all parties are
willing participants. Miller’s well-researched, bitingly written
account paints a panorama of irrationality and abuse: well-funded,
innovative drug lords who regard seized shipments as a cost of doing
business; broad drug-courier "profiling" criteria that could finger
virtually anybody; forfeiture laws that allow police to seize property
and savings with no pretense of due process; drug raids in which
law-abiding citizens are gunned down in their homes. Miller’s
libertarian leanings, supported by quotes from conservative icons like
Adam Smith, Barry Goldwater and Ann Coulter, occasionally carry him
past drug policy into jibes against the New Deal, Social Security and
all things governmental. But when he sticks to drugs he delivers a
formidable challenge to the reigning prohibitionist orthodoxy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
The
war against drugs was supposed to make America better, right? It
failed. Not only does the drug war fail to keep Americans from using
drugs, but its crackdown tactics also produce bigger problems than it
promises to solve. In this fearlessly audacious book, Joel Miller shows
that drug prohibition creates tremendous amounts of crime and
corruption, helps finance anti-American terrorists, makes a joke out of
U.S. border security, chips away at constitutional liberties,
militarizes law enforcement, and jails hundreds of thousands of
Americans. And for what? A bigger, more intrusive government that cares
less and less about individual rights. Told in a bold, uncompromising
style, Miller's book reveals the true and terrible nature of the war on
drugs and also, just as importantly, informs readers about what they
can do to kick the drug-war habit.
"Miller nails it," says Larry
Elder, host of ABC Radio's nationally syndicated Larry Elder Show and
best-selling author. "He powerfully and persuasively articulates the
folly, the harm and the unconstitutionality of our government's War
against Drugs." And says Judge Andrew P. Napolitano of Fox News, "If
you are interested in our freedoms or fearful of the government
destroying human lives and wasting tax dollars on another American
Prohibition, read this book and send a copy to every lawmaker and judge
you know."
If you want to understand the drug problem in
America, you first need to know how the government is making it worse.
Bad Trip is the place to start.
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