Timothy Lynch

In the following article, Timothy Lynch asserts that America’s war on drugs has been an expensive failure. According to Lynch, although the United States has spent billions of dollars since Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, millions of Americans continue to use drugs and the flow of drugs into the country has not been reduced. In addition, Lynch argues that the war on drugs has resulted in a mammoth criminal-justice system and a number of troubling police practices. He concludes that America must reinvent its drug policy. Lynch is the director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice and the editor of the book After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Lynch’s opinion, why...