The Cato Institute’s War on Drugs
The Cato Institute’s War on Drugs
S.R.R
Feb. 6, 2014
The Cato Institute’s War on Drugs
Abstract
The Cato Institute was established to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace. (Cato Institute) The Cato Institute was founded in 1974 in Wichita, Kansas. The founders were Charles G. Koch with co-founders Murray Rothbard and Edward H. Crane. The motto of the company is “Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace”. The Cato Institute participants believe in limiting the power that the government has and for a more individual free thinking society. A prime example of this would be the ending of affirmative action and minimum wage. These are two exact examples of what the Cato Institute believes.
The position in which the Cato Institute stands towards the country’s war on drugs is that the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 was a presidential move by congress and that some 44 years later there are still questions surrounding rather it has worked or not. The Cato Institute believes the following:
• Repeal the controlled substances act of 1970.
• Repeal the federal mandatory minimum sentences and the mandatory sentencing guidelines.
• Direct the administration not to interfere with the implementation of the state initiatives that allow for medical use of marijuana.
• Shut down the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Cato Institute looks at the DEA as a failed experiment by the government that as a result has caused crime and drug use to soar instead of decline. In America over 1.5 million arrests a year are drug related and more than 60% of the Federal inmate
The Cato Institute’s War on Drugs
population is drug related. Cato’s Institute, believe to prohibit drugs causes more harm than it does good. The U.S. government spends 19 billion...