This article on Taki's site takes on libertarians and their criticism of the War on Drugs. Mr. Roach sounds very authoritarian, especially when he notes that a militarized police state fighting the drug war tends to "gather up society's trash" in a way that benefits us all. He even uses the argument that one committing a crime is likely to commit another, thus we should lock them up when we have the opportunity to nab them on drug charges. He somehow - and this is never explained - links people who are convicted of drug crimes to other, more serious crimes such as burglary, rape, and murder, and since the state often cannot gain enough evidence to convict them of these hard crimes, the state should throw away the key by way of drug convictions. Says Roach: "Drug convictions are analogous to punishing Al Capone for tax evasion." He says nothing about the zillions of peaceful users and small-time sellers who spend decades - or their whole life - behind bars. Perhaps he hasn't seen this story.

Finally, he appeals to Ron Paul, and other drug war critics like him, to address "how they would continue to suppress violent crime that the drug war is now tamping down quite effectively." Of course, this is a false statement and therefore need not be addressed by Ron Paul or anyone. Libertarians would not define drug use or voluntary transactions between willing parties, with drugs as the good, as a "crime." It is the state's laws making drugs illegal that have brought rise to the drug-related violence in the streets.