In one of the more predictable moments from last night's CNN Libertarian Town Hall, Gary Johnson was confronted by the mother of a young man who ingested a single line of heroin and was disabled for life. Jacob Sullum has already weighed in on what Johnson should have said from a libertarian perspective, but his thoughtful and informed piece is still too verbose for a political campaign.
Libertarians like to make fun of "sound bites" and slogans, but if they ever want to win an election for dog catcher, much less President of the United States, they need to face the reality that people stop listening and stop reading when the answer is long and developed. Here is how Gary Johnson should have answered:
"Ms. Morella, I am very sorry to hear about what happened to your son. It's a tragedy. But I have to tell you the truth, even though it's not what you came here to hear. What happened to your son may not have happened at all if heroin were legal. Here's why:
When drugs are illegal, they're sold by criminals who have no business address. You can't sue them if they're negligent or prosecute them when they willfully defraud you.
Reactions like your son's usually occur with what's called a "hot load," meaning there was another substance mixed with the heroin. If the heroin he ingested were sold by a legitimate business in the light of day, there would be an immediate investigation. If the product had dangerous ingredients in it or otherwise wasn't what the package said it was, the owner would be sued. If it were discovered he did it intentionally, he'd be prosecuted.
Ms. Morella, no one in America is concerned that when they buy a bottle of gin, there is going to be foreign substances in it that are going to kill them. But they used to be. Know when it was? When alcohol was prohibited. They called it "bath tub gin" and tragedies like your son's occurred all the time when only criminals could sell alcohol.
There is absolutely no difference between alcohol prohibition then and drug prohibition today. Your son's tragedy is the 2016 equivalent of what happened to people drinking bath tub gin.
Prohibiting alcohol also led to the rise of heavily armed, violent gangs like Al Capone's. You don't see sellers of alcohol today behaving like Capone. Do you know why? Because that's not how business is conducted in the absence of prohibition.
You said, "Can you people in positions of power please get rid of the drugs?" I'm the only politician who is going to tell you the truth. No. We've had a war on drugs for decades and there are more drugs now than ever. It's a little like the government war on terrorism. Is there less terrorism today than fifteen years ago or more?
What we can do is stop subsidizing criminal drug dealers by taking away their legitimate competition. If you want someone to tell you what you want to hear about drugs, I'm sure Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be happy to. Their parties have told you they'll get rid of drugs for fifty years. If you want the truth, the only way to make America safer is to end prohibition and allow all drugs to be sold like alcohol."
The answer above is chock full of sound bites. Sound bites become headlines. That's how you get your message out to 315 million people.
It also answers the woman's question, something Johnson's rambling answer failed to do.
This is the way Gary Johnson has to start answering questions if he's going to take any advantage of the opportunity the Libertarian Party is being presented with during this election. Hopefully, his debate coach is listening.