Many things have happened since this book was first published
in 2001. Unfortunately, there is no particular need to update
many of the stories or much of the data, because since that time
we have compounded our problems by continuing to follow the same
failed and hopeless policy of Drug Prohibition that we have been actively
employing for the past four decades or more. So although much has happened,
not much has really changed. Thus the arguments previously made
are just as forceful now as they were then.6
To highlight that point, at the beginning of my presentations to various
groups, I almost always ask whether we are in better shape today than
we were five years ago regarding the critical issue of drug abuse and all of
the crime and misery that go with it. And almost never do any people in
the audience raise their hands and say that we are. Well, if it’s true that
we’re no better off—and it is—then we also must realize that we have
no legitimate expectation of being in better shape next year than we are
today—unless we change our approach.
Without question, things have indeed gotten worse during these past
ten years. So this book has now been updated to show that the number of
people arrested and incarcerated for drug offenses has continued to climb
almost unabated; that the problems caused specifically by drug money
have continued to reach terrifying levels, including the unprecedented but
entirely foreseeable violence and corruption that has fallen on Mexico;
and that all the while these sometimes dangerous and addicting drugs
have become even more available for anyone who wants them, especially
our children