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You even could tax the sale of now-illegal drugs and use the money to build more treatment centers, which are desperately needed. Deep thinkers have long advocated lifting the prohibition on drugs. Last year the debate was stirred anew when Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke called for a serious national debate on the subject.
你甚至可以向现在非法的毒品交易征税，用这笔税金来修建更多的康复中心，这正是社会迫切需要的。深入思考毒品问题的人们长期以来一直主张解除对毒品的禁令。去年，当巴尔的摩市市长库尔特·施莫克呼吁就这一问题进行一场全国性的严肃认真的辩论时，重新引发了围绕这一问题的严肃的讨论。
Schmoke's advocacy was based on his experience as a drug prosecutor. He felt as though he was bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. Prohibition of drugs is working no better than prohibition of liquor worked earlier this century, he told Congress. It increases crime without eliminating addiction. So let's change the rules.
施莫克的主张是基于他作为一名毒品检察官的经历而提出的。他觉得当时的禁毒工作如同用汤匙向外舀海水。他向国会指出，禁毒工作与本世纪早些时候的禁酒行动一样收效甚微，非但没有消灭毒瘾，反而使得犯罪率上升。因此，我们应该改变规则。
He was not alone in his sentiments. "Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse—for both the addict and the rest of us," wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman in 1972, after President Nixon declared a "war" on drugs.
他并不是唯一坚持这种观点的人。在尼克松总统宣布进行一场反对毒品的“战争”后，诺贝尔奖获得者经济学家米尔顿·弗里德曼在1972年写道，禁毒本来是要解决问题的，可是对于吸毒者和我们其他人来说，它只能使情况变得更加糟糕。”
The simplicity of this prescription has proved irresistible to many. Unfortunately, the simple beauty of such logic has an ugly gaping hole. There is considerable evidence to suggest that with legalization drug use and its social costs would increase. Sharply. Keeping drugs illegal may not eliminate them, but it almost surely reduces their use.
这种简单的解决方法看来对许多人产生了巨大的诱惑力。令人遗憾的是，这种逻辑的优点是简单，但有一个令人讨厌的大漏洞。许多证据表明，如果实现毒品合法化，毒品的使用及其社会成本将会增加，而且是急剧增加。使毒品交易非法可能不会使毒品消失，但几乎可以肯定的是会减少毒品的用量。
