One of the major success stories the prohibitionists take credit for—the dramatic decrease in cocaine use among the middle class in the 1980s—had a number of causes, and law enforcement may have been least among them. A study of some 200 heavy cocaine users in northern California between 1985 and 1987 revealed that fear of arrest was number six on the list of reasons for quitting.  Far more important were health problems, financial difficulties, problems at work, and pressure from a spouse or lover. “What keeps many heavy users from falling into the abyss of abuse, and what helps pull back those who do fall, is a stake in conventional life.” Jobs, families, friends—the ingredients of normal identity—turned out to be the ballast that allowed these people to pull back from the edge.^[25] It seems the real reason most people stay away from drugs—alcohol and tobacco included—is not criminal sanctions but common sense.

And this points to a path out of the swamp. Apparently the one sure-fire way to cut down on drug use is to give people the facts and let them use their own judgement.  In 1914, just before drug and alcohol prohibition began, both drugs and alcohol were in general disfavor and their use was declining among all segments of the population.^[26] The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 forced manufacturers to list ingredients on the label, and when people found out what was in some of these home remedies, the use of narcotics dropped by a third—the largest single decrease ever—and that was before prohibition.^[27] The most successful anti-drug crusade in history was the one waged against tobacco over the last thirty years, a campaign that avoided prohibition altogether. The tool was education, and it proved far more formidable than coercion. California cut smoking 40 percent in a single decade by using cigarette taxes to finance anti-smoking ads.^[28]