An essay written by Brad Pitt criticizes the war on drugs.
Actor Brad Pitt is not just a highly successful Hollywood actor and producer.
Evidently, he’s a talented writer as well.
Pitt has written an essay, which was published by ‘The Observer’ blasting America’s War on Drugs, calling it a ‘failure’. Pitt claims that any single person can land in their American city of choice and nab whatever drug they want within 24-48 hours.
He writes “Since declaring a war on drugs 40 years ago, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars, arrested more than 45 million people, and racked up the highest incarceration rate in the world. Yet it remains laughably easy to obtain illegal drugs. It's a charade.”
Pitt says when busts are made, a shortage of supply drives up prices, similar to the supply and demand chain of traditional businesses. In turn, when law enforcement focuses on restricting the amount of drugs on the street, the market inflates. That drives up the potential to make serious profit, outweighing the risk of getting caught and punished.
Pitt proposes that beyond just trying to remove drugs, the government needs to spend resources investing in education and treatment for narcotics abusers.