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Just Say No to the Drug War?
The latest news from our friends at The Socionomics Institute

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:45:00 ET	Bookmark and share It!

GAINESVILLE, Ga. / June 2, 2011 — On June 1st, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a landmark report with a blunt message: The War on Drugs has failed. The report, compiled by 19 former and current world leaders – including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and U.K. business mogul Richard Branson – recommends the cessation of Drug War policy. The United States and Mexico almost immediately rejected the report’s findings and recommendations as “misguided.”

Shocking to some, these headlines don’t surprise researchers at The Socionomics Institute. Nearly two years ago the Georgia-based think tank wrote, “As the violence increasingly affects the U.S., the American government will counter public anxiety with assurances that everything is under control and that the situation is contained to a few small areas…[Yet] it appears inevitable that drug-related carnage — and public disgust with it — will spread.” The report noted that as with alcohol prohibition, marijuana legalization will be viewed as the quickest way to end the war on drugs — and the quickest potential tax revenue to boost the ailing economy.

The Socionomics Institute studies social behavior as it relates to the financial markets and uses the markets to forecast monumental changes in society. In this case, researcher Euan Wilson finds that social mood, reflected in stock prices, also governs society’s tolerance for recreational drugs, as detailed in the chart below.

According to the report, “during times of negative mood [and low stock prices]…people have other, bigger worries and begin to view recreational drugs as less dangerous, if not innocuous in offering stress relief, pain reduction and the ability to cope with the pressures of negative social mood.”

Note to media: For a copy of the study or to arrange an interview with Euan Wilson, contact Alexandra Lienhard at (770) 536-0309, alexandral@socionomics.net.