Name: 為什麼毒品戰爭是一場巨大的失敗？ (Why The War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:21:04.000Z
Duration: 6 min 26 s

Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon

declared drug abuse public enemy number one,

starting an unprecedented global campaign, the War on Drugs.

開始了一項史無前例的政策：毒品戰爭

The War on Drugs is a huge failure, with devastating unintended consequences.

毒品戰爭帶來了一連串異想不到的可怕後果

to corruption, political destabilization, and violence

而社會腐敗、政治動盪和暴力橫行

則在在南美洲、亞洲和非洲蔓延

to systemic human rights abuses across the world.

It negatively affected the lives of millions of people.

他嚴重影響了數以百萬人的生計

All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year

在這些期間，人們每年花了幾十億元

only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels

while the goal of the War on Drugs seems less achievable than ever:

這聽起來這項政策的結果跟他的預期結果：

一個沒有毒品的世界，差了十萬八千里

The core strategy of the War on Drugs is “no drugs, no problems”.

毒品戰爭的策略核心就是：消滅毒品，一切就沒問題

So almost all of the efforts in the last few decades

所以在前幾十年內，人們一直努力於

have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs

But this ignores the most fundamental of market forces,

但是這忽略了市場機制最根本的動力：

If you reduce the supply of anything without reducing the demand first,

如果只單純減少了某物品的供給 而沒有降低需求

This might lower sales for many products, but not for drugs.

而這對於一般產品而言，其銷售量可能會下滑 但是毒品卻不是這樣

Drugs will be consumed no matter what they cost.

不管價格如何，毒品仍然會有人買

So the effect is to encourage production of more drugs and

所以結果就變成了鼓勵人們製造更多的毒品

recruitment of more traffickers, which increases availability.

以及更多的毒販，讓毒品流通更便利

This is also known as the balloon effect: even if drug production or

這就是所謂的氣球效應：就算毒品的生產

a major supply route is destroyed, the supply for the end user is not reduced.

和主要的供應鏈都被瓦解了，最後消費者端的需求卻沒有減少

A perfect example of this is crystal meth.

The US Government tried to stop its production

美國政府為了遏止安非他命的製造

by strictly regulating the sale of chemicals used to manufacture the drug.

This forced big meth producers out of business,

這讓有效的大型的安非他命工場關門了

but the unintended consequences were that thousands of small-scale operations

但出人意外的是，小規模的製毒工廠如雨後春筍般浮現

started all over the country, mostly in small towns and rural communities,

並蔓延到世界各地的小鎮或郊區

using chemicals that weren’t regulated.

In response to this, some US states wanted to reduce the supply of home-grown meth

某些美國的洲省為了減少有如家庭代工的安非他命場

which reduced small-scale meth production drastically.

這降低了小規模的安非他命製造

But the supply of meth still stayed the same.

Mexican drug cartels immediately took over and opened big production operations.

因為墨西哥販毒集團立即接手並開始大規模的生產

Their meth was even better than it was before,

他們的安非他命甚至比以前的更好

and they had lots of experience in smuggling.

So all these efforts made meth production more professional,

因此，所有這些努力讓安非他命的生產更加專業化了

the drug more potent, while supply wasn’t reduced at all.

毒品更有效，而供應卻完全沒有減少

You can’t win this war on the supply side.

在供應這部份根本不可能贏得勝利

Not only are drugs widely available, demand unbroken,

不僅是毒品的廣泛流通及需求未減

and some drugs purer than in the past, with a budget of around $30 billion,

毒品的純度也比以前純了，更創造了300億的商機

the US Drug Enforcement Agency has an efficiency rate of less than 1%

美國緝毒署的效率卻只有不到1%

when it comes to stopping the flow of drugs into the US

這就是美國為了遏止毒品流通所造成的結果，不論境外輸入

For many minors around the world, it’s as easy to get illegal drugs as alcohol.

對於青少年，毒品就像酒一樣的容易取得

Prohibition may prevent a certain amount of people from taking drugs,

用禁止的方式雖然可能會減少某些使用讀品的人數

but in the process it causes huge damage to society as a whole.

但在這個過程中它卻對於整體社會造成巨大的傷害

Many of the problems we associate with drug use

are actually caused by the war against them.

實際上卻源自於消滅毒品的行動

For example, prohibition makes drugs stronger.

The more potent drugs you can store in as little space as possible,

更有效的毒品讓存放毒品的空間更小

It was the same during alcohol prohibition,

which led to an increased consumption of strong liquor over beer.

便會導致人們去喝比啤酒還更烈的酒

The prohibition of drugs also led to more violence and murders around the world.

毒品的禁令在世界各地也導致更多的暴力衝突殺人案。

Gangs and cartels have no access to the legal system to settle disputes,

不法幫派和毒販不能訴諸法律途徑解決

This led to an ever-increasing spiral of brutality.

導致這樣的惡性循環不斷的增長

According to some estimates, the homicide rate in the US

is 25–75% higher because of the War on Drugs.

And in Mexico, the country on the frontline,

an estimated 164,000 have been murdered between 2007 and 2014,

有大約16萬4千人在2007~2014年間被謀殺

more people than in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq

這比起在戰區的阿富汗和伊拉克的死亡人數還多

But where the War on Drugs might do the most damage to society

但是在這情況下，對於社會影響最大的

is the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.

one of the driving forces of the War on Drugs,

has 5% of the world’s total population, but 25% of the world’s prison population,

佔世界總人口的5％ 但卻擁有世界上人口的25％

largely due to the harsh punishments and mandatory minimums.

這主要是因為對毒品的嚴厲的懲處跟強制的禁止

Minorities suffer because of this especially.

而社會中的少數族群對於這種迫害更嚴重

African Americans make up 40% of all US prison inmates.

非裔美國人佔了所有美國囚犯的40％

And while white kids are more likely to abuse drugs,

雖然白人小孩更有可能接觸到毒品

black kids are 10 times more likely to get arrested for drug offenses.

黑人小孩為此入獄的比率卻比白人小孩高出10倍

OK, but is there actually something different we could do?

好的，我們現在應該有一些不同的作為可以做吧？

a public health crisis related to heroin use.

海洛因的濫用造成了公共健康的危機

HIV rates skyrocketed and street crime became a problem.

造成愛滋病毒嚴重的擴散以及街頭犯罪

Swiss authorities tried a new strategy: harm reduction.

瑞士當局嘗試了新的策略：減少傷害

They opened free heroin maintenance centers,

where addicts would be treated and stabilized.

吸毒者會在裡面接受治療與照護

Here, people would be given free heroin of high quality,

在這裡，成癮者們可以免費吸食高品質的海洛因

they would get clean needles and have access to safe injection rooms,

他們可以用乾淨的針頭跟安全的注射室

Social workers help them find housing and deal with other problems in their lives.

社會工作者幫助他們找到住的地方 和解決他們生活中的其他問題

The results were a sharp drop in drug-related crime

結果就是毒品相關的犯罪大幅的下降了

and two thirds of the people in the centers got regular jobs,

並在中心內三分之二的人有了固定的工作

because now they could focus on getting better

因為現在他們可以把生活重心放在如何讓自己過更好

Today, over 70% of all heroin addicts in Switzerland receive treatment.

現在，瑞士超過70％的海洛因成癮者接受這種治療

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為什麼毒品戰爭是一場巨大的失敗？ (Why The War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure)

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