“[Those opposing the alcohol prohibition] saw what most Americans still fail to see today: That a failed drug prohibition can cause greater harm than the drug it was intended to banish.
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The real difference is that alcohol is the devil we know, while these others are the devils we don’t. Most Americans in 1933 could recall a time before prohibition, which tempered their fears. But few Americans now can recall the decades when the illicit drugs of today were sold and consumed legally. If they could, a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming.
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But there’s one more thing [Barack Obama] can do: Promote vigorous and informed debate in this domain as in all others. The worst prohibition, after all, is a prohibition on thinking.