Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one,starting an unprecedented global campaign, the War on Drugs.Today, the numbers are in.The War on Drugs is a huge failure, with devastating unintended consequences.It led to mass incarceration in the US;to corruption, political destabilization, and violencein Latin America, Asia, and Africa;to systemic human rights abuses across the world.

40 多年前，美国总统理查德·尼克松宣布把吸毒作为“全民头号公敌”，并开始了一场史无前例的大规模运动，即毒品战争。今天，结果出来了，毒品战争被证明是一场巨大的失败，并带来毁灭性以及令人出乎意料的后果。 这场毒品战争不仅导致美国出现大规模监禁；而且为拉丁美洲、亚洲和非洲带来腐败、政治动荡和暴力；也导致了世界范围内系统性的人权侵害。

It negatively affected the lives of millions of people.All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year ，only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels ，while the goal of the War on Drugs seems less achievable than ever: a world without drugs.

它对数百万人的生活产生了负面影响。与此同时，我们每年浪费数十亿美元，只是制造和助长了强大的贩毒集团，而”毒品战争“的目标似乎比以往任何时候都更难以实现：一个没有毒品的世界。

How could this happen?The core strategy of the War on Drugs is “no drugs, no problems”.So almost all of the efforts in the last few decades have been focused on eradicating the supply of drugs and incarcerating drug traffickers.But this ignores the most fundamental of market forces,supply and demand.If you reduce the supply of anything without reducing the demand first,its price goes up.

怎么会这样呢？毒品战争的核心战略是“没有毒品，就没有问题”。因此，在过去几十年里，几乎所有的努力都集中在根除毒品供应和监禁毒贩上。但这忽视了最基本的市场力量——供求关系。如果你减少任何物品的供给却没有首先减少它的需求，物品价格自然而然地就会上涨。

This might lower sales for many products,but not fur drugs.the drugs market is not price-sensitive.Drugs will be consumed no matter what they cost .So the effect is to encourage production of more drugs and recruitment of more traffickers, which increases availability.This is also known as the balloon effect: even if drug production or a major supply route is destroyed, the supply for the end user is not reduced..

这可能会降低许多产品的销量，但不会降低毒品的销量。毒品市场对价格不敏感，无论毒品的价格是多少，它都会被消费。因此，其效果是鼓励生产更多的毒品和招募更多的贩毒者，从而增加毒品的可获得性。这也称为气球效应：即使毒品生产或主要供应路线被破坏，但对最终吸毒者的供应不会减少。

A perfect example of this is crystal meth.The US Government tried to stop its production by strictly regulating the sale of chemical used to manufacture the drug.This forced big meth producers out of business,but the unintended consequences were that thousands of small-scale operations started all over the country, mostly in small towns and rural communities,using chemicals that weren’t regulated.

冰毒是个很好的例子。美国政府试图通过严格管制用于制造这种毒品的化学品销售来停止其生产。虽然这样迫使大型冰毒生产商倒闭，但意想不到的后果是成千上万的小规模生产商开始在全国各地行动，主要是在小城镇和农村社区，这些地方使用化学品不被管制。

In response to this, some US states wanted to reduce the supply of home-grown meth by regulating even more chemicals,which reduced small-scale meth production drastically.But the supply of meth still stayed the same.Mexican drug cartels immediately took over and opened big production operations.Their meth was even better than it was before,and they had lots of experience in smuggling.

对此，美国一些州想通过管制更多的化学品来减少本土冰毒的供应，这样确实大大减少了小规模冰毒的生产，但冰毒的供应仍然保持不变。墨西哥贩毒集团马上取代了这些小规模生产并且开始大规模的生产操作，他们的制造的冰毒质量比以前还要好，而且有更多的走私经验。

So all these efforts made meth production more professional,the drug more potent, while supply wasn't reduced at all.You can't win this war on the supply side.Not only are drugs widely available, demand unbroken,and some drugs purer than in the past, with a budget of around $30 billion,the US Drug Enforcement Agency has an efficiency rate of less than 1%,when it comes to stopping the flow of drugs into the US and inside the US.

所以，所有这些努力使冰毒生产更专业，效力更强烈，而供应根本没有减少。你不能在供应方面赢得这场战争。这场战争不仅使毒品随处可得，需求也未出现间断，而且使一些毒品的纯度比过去更高。美国缉毒署的预算约为300亿美元，但在阻止毒品流入美国以及美国国内禁毒方面，其效率不到1%。

For many minors around the world, it’s as easy to get illegal drugs as alcohol.But it doesn't stop here.Prohibition may prevent a certain amount of people from taking drugs,but in the process it causes huge damage to society as a whole.Many of the problems we associate with drug use are actually caused by the war against them.

对于世界各地的许多未成年人来说，买毒品和买酒一样容易，甚至不止于此。禁毒可能会阻止一定数量的人吸毒，但在这个过程中却对整个社会造成了巨大的伤害 .我们与吸毒相关的许多问题实际上是由反对毒品的战争造成的。

For example, prohibition makes drugs stronger.The more potent drugs you can store in as little space as possible,the more profit you'll make.It was the same during alcohol prohibition,which led to an increased consumption of strong liquor over beer.The prohibition of drugs also led to more violence and murders around the world.Gangs and cartels have no access to the legal system to settle disputes,so they use violence.

例如，禁毒使毒品效力更强大。药效越强，储存所需的地方越小，获得的利润就越多。禁酒期间也是如此，禁酒导致烈酒的消费量超过啤酒。 禁毒也导致了世界范围内更多的暴力和谋杀。帮派和贩毒集团无法通过法律体系解决争端，因此他们只能使用暴力。

This led to an ever-increasing spiral of brutality.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,more people than in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq in the same period, combined.

这导致了越来越多的暴行。据估计，由于毒品战争，美国的凶杀率高出 25-75%。而在前线国家墨西哥，2007 年至 2014 年间，估计有 164,000 人被谋杀，比同一时期阿富汗和伊拉克战区死亡的人数总和还要多。

But where the War on Drugs might do the most damage to society is the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.For example, the United States,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,largely due to the harsh punishments and mandatory minimums.Minorities suffer because of this especially.

但毒品战争对社会造成最大损害的地方是监禁非暴力毒品违法者。 例如，美国，毒品战争的推动力之一，拥有世界总人口的 5%，却占世界监狱总人数的 25%，主要是由于严厉的惩罚和强制性的最低刑期。少数族裔受害最重。

African Americans make up 40% of all US prison inmates.And while white kids are more likely to abuse drugs,black kids are 10 times more likely to get arrested for drug offenses.OK, but is there actually something different we could do?Is there a way out of this mess?In the 1980s, Switzerland experienced a public health crisis related to heroin use.

非裔美国人占美国监狱囚犯总数的 40%。虽然白人孩子滥用毒品的可能性更大，但黑人孩子因毒品犯罪被捕的可能性却是白人的10倍。那好，所以我们是不是还可以做些不同的事情？ 还有其它的办法解决这个难题？ 1980 年，瑞士经历了一场与使用海洛因有关的公共卫生危机。
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HIV rates skyrocketed and street crime became a problem.Swiss authorities tried a new strategy: harm reduction.They opened free heroin maintenance centers,where addicts would be treated and stabilized.Here, people would be given free heroin of high quality,they would get clean needles and have access to safe injection rooms,showers, beds, and medical supervision.

艾滋病毒感染率飙升，街头犯罪成为一个问题。瑞士当局尝试了一种新策略：减少伤害。他们开设了免费的海洛因维护中心，在那里可以治疗和稳定吸毒者。在这里，人们将获得免费的高质量海洛因，他们将获得清洁针头，并可以使用安全的注射室、淋浴、床和医疗监督。

Social workers help them find housing and deal with other problems in their lives.The results were a sharp drop in drug-related crime and two thirds of the people in the centers got regular jobs,because now they could focus on getting better insetad of financing their addiction.Today, over 70% of all heroin addicts in Switzerland receive treatment.HIV infections have dropped drastically.

社会工作者帮助他们寻找住房并帮助他们解决生活中的其他问题。 结果是与毒品有关的犯罪急剧下降，在这个中心三分之二的人找到了固定工作，现在的他们可以专注于改善自己的生活，而不是想着找钱用来吸毒。今天，瑞士所有海洛因成瘾者中有 70% 以上接受了治疗，艾滋病毒感染率大幅下降。

Deaths from heroin overdoses have dropped by 50%.And drug-related street sex work and crime has been reduced enormously.
So there are methods that are not only way cheaper,but also actually work.After 40 years of fighting, it's time to finally end the War on Drugs and move on to something better.

因吸食海洛因过量致死的人数下降了 50%。与毒品有关的街头性工作和犯罪率大大减少。所以有些方法不仅便宜得多，而且确实有效。经过 40 年的斗争，是时候结束毒品战争并转向更好的选择了 .