America's love for prohibition and bans border on the insane

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. " - Albert Einstein 

This famous quote has incredible implications in law and in democracy, especially with regard to prohibition and criminalization of behaviors or actions society deems as "vices" or "immorality."

This nation has, and continues to repeatedly demonstrate insanity, as defined by Mr. Einstein.  People mistakenly continue to believe that "illegalize" or "criminalize" is synonymous with "eliminate," even when it has been shown over and over that this is not the case.

Prohibition of alcohol was a devastating mistake, which introduced dangerous home-made alcohol to society, and contributed to the birth of gang crime and underground operations in this country.  It certainly did not eliminate the consumption of alcohol. If anything, it only drove it underground and made it more dangerous. 

We did not learn any lesson from the prohibition of alcohol. The War on Drugs, a modern version of alcohol prohibition aimed at other substances, has not stamped out drug use, but has given rise to the militarization of American police forces, innocent deaths, violent gang crime and the overcrowding of prisons with non-violent drug offenders. One only has to watch a few episodes of Gangland to understand that many, if not most of America's most violent and terrifying gangs were started by, or continue to operate primarily on illegal drug money.

Bans on abortion did not eliminate abortion, but led to women seeking back alley or coat-hanger abortions and unsafe self-help remedies. Yet the legality of abortion continues to be contested. The ban on smoking in bars may have provided smoke-free bars, but has also led to increase in drunk driving, which is far worse than smoking.

Prohibition of prostitution has not rid society of the oldest profession, but has resulted in increased rapes and violent crimes against prostitutes who are afraid to report crimes, as well as an increase in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Prohibition of polygamous marriage did not eliminate it, but only drove polygamous families to set up isolated compounds where they could hide from the law. The result was that when child marriages or abuse did occur, they were difficult to report, and victims had a hard time leaving these highly secretive and isolated communities.

Aside from the idea that adults should be free to make whatever life choices they see fit, in almost all of these circumstances, the consequences of the ban were even worse than the original vice or ill sought to be banned. In all of these circumstances, prohibition has not been successful or helpful, but has wrought terrible results.

Yet we continue to ban things, illegalize, criminalize. We see the results of our foolish vote in retrospect, but fervently continue to vote in bans of all sorts. This is insanity.

Fortunately, from time to time, the voices of sanity apparently still exist. Most recently, Utah's Attorney General has said he will not prosecute polygamy itself. Only crimes committed in conjunction with polygamy (e.g. abuse or fraud) will be prosecuted.

Since then, Utah has seen a spike in calls from people in fundamentalist Mormon communities who are willing to report crimes and seek help (see full story here).  The next step should be full legalization, although this is probably too much to hope for.

Perhaps it is too much to ask for people to stop self-righteously judging their neighbors for the various life choices their neighbors may make. However, people should at least refrain from voting in bans and prohibitions with devastating consequences that ripple throughout society and often harm completely innocent and unrelated parties as well - i.e., refrain from acting like a complete lunatic.