WATCH: Libertarian Party chair on the war on drugs: Stop locking people up – Salon

When I recently spoke with the Libertarian Partys chairman, Nicholas Sarwark, about his organizations unique perspective onthe presidency of Donald Trump, he highlighted a very important issue: the war on drugs.

Sarwark also argued that Congress needs tosay, Look, these penalties that we have for people having drugs or selling drugs or using drugs they need to be brought down into the area of reality. And stop locking people up for decades oversubstances people voluntarily consume and ingest.

Indeed many people onthe left might agree: What right does the government have to tell people what they can do with their bodies? Not to mention the fact thatsuch a crusade should be denounced for its racism,expenseand mass incarceration. Yet while those problems are horrific, the war on drugs could theoretically be reformed withoutdoing away with it altogether.

To me, though, the last part of Sarwarksphrasing perfectly captures whythe war on drugscannot be justified: Stop locking people up for decades over substances people voluntarily consume and ingest.

Do you want to claim that people who use drugs are more likely to commit crimes? Perhaps, but then outlaw the crimes themselves, not the substances that may make them more likely.

Sarwarksaid that anti-drug laws need to be brought down into the area of reality.

In my view, they shouldnt exist at all.

Watch our conversationto better understand libertarians argument aboutour governments drug policies.

See the rest here:

WATCH: Libertarian Party chair on the war on drugs: Stop locking people up - Salon