MLM Directory - Does the "WAR ON DRUGS" actually create MORE CRIME, cause MORE PROBLEMS, and FURTHER INFLATE the GOVERNMENT?

Does the "WAR ON DRUGS" actually create MORE CRIME, cause MORE PROBLEMS, and FURTHER INFLATE the GOVERNMENT?

Prohibition only creates crime and related social harms. This was the case in the 1920s with alcohol, and it is the case now with currently illegal drugs. It does not matter if you are for or against people using drugs. Prohibition does NOT WORK, and it costs far too much to continue. I never really thought it through when I was younger. It was very simple to me: Drugs are bad, therefore they should be illegal. That was all of the thought I put into it, because I did not think beyond the propaganda that I heard every day in school. I did not think about all of the problems that prohibition causes (even though I had studied prohibition at one point), and I think that most people are pretty much brainwashed by the same propaganda, so most of us don't bother to think about the negative impact that the "WAR ON DRUGS" has on our society. If you do not think we should change the laws, then you support drug UNcontrol. Prohibition means NO regulation, and NO control because drugs are pushed underground into criminality. Prohibition does not stop people from making, selling, buying or using drugs. All it does is make drugs impossible to control. The most optimistic reports show that we only interdict 10-15% of drug traffic. That means that prohibition is 85% to 90% ineffective. That also means that we have NO control over recreational substances. It does not matter if you are for or against drug use. Prohibition is an abject failure. If we put a stop to this irresponsible and detrimental "WAR", our country could experience a huge DECREASE in: -Crime (Crime is higher as a result of the war on drugs. In particular, homicides have skyrocketed - 10 per 100,000 - the only other time the homicide rate was so high was during alcohol prohibition. After prohibition, the murder rates dropped by more than HALF) -Disease and, -Government Spending (A RAND corporation study showed that each dollar spent on education and treatment is 7 times more effective than a dollar spent on criminal interdiction, yet we spend more than 45 BILLION DOLLARS per year on criminal interdiction and incarceration costs, and less than 4 billion dollars on education, treatment, and prevention. ), -Prison Population (According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US in 2005 was $67.55. That means it costs states approximately $16,948,295 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,186,127,675 per year), http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm -Gangs and Organized Crime (gangs are a product of drug prohibition), -Corrupt Police (Who wants to live in a police state?), -Drug Trafficking (obvious reasons), -Drugs Use among Teens (Drug use INCREASED 7 fold among 12-17 year olds after the modern War on Drugs started. The economics of prohibition favors the targeting of youths. Drug dealers don't ask for ID), -Graffiti (Gang tagging creates an enormous graffiti problem causing millions of dollars in damage every year. The gangs are a product of drug prohibition) -Deaths due to overdose, -car accidents caused by high speed chases (Where a driver is afraid of being caught with illegal drugs), -divorce rate (parents would not be separated from the family due to petty possession convictions), -GUN CONTROL - we have increasingly strict gun control laws because the crime wave that rides on prohibition has caused huge public outcry. Rather than focus on the cause of crime (socioeconomic factors of the drug war are a major component), the public and legislators lash out at gun owners. This would practically REMOVE the government's pretext to ban guns! Since Nixon started the modern war on drugs, use among teens is up 7 times. This is because the black market created by prohibition makes underage teens a very easy target. The result is that illegal drugs run rampant through every high school in America. But alcohol, as a legal drug, is much harder for a minor to obtain. We must remove the profit incentive in the black market for recreational substances - the only way to do that is to end prohibition and replace it with regulation. Congress is granted the power to "regulate commerce". "Regulate", to the writers of the Constitution, meant to facilitate the proper functioning of, as when someone regulates a clock to keep proper time, or the barrels of a double rifle to hit the same point of aim The Rand corporation's study showed that every dollar spent on education or treatment programs is 7 times more effective that a dollar spent on criminal interdictions. If recreational substances were made available through a regulated and taxed means, just like alcohol, we could focus far more money on education and treatment and as a result, lower drug use and provide for a healthier society. The resultant reduction in crime will provide safer streets for police and citizens, and allow the police to concentrate on real crimes, such as violent crimes. This was one of the rationales behind the repeal of Alcohol Prohibition, and it is still a good idea. In Holland where both Marijuana and Heroin are legally available, they have HALF the percentage of Marijuana users as in the US, and a THIRD the percentage of heroin users. If heroin were legal tomorrow would you shoot up? No, neither would I. The people that would use heroin already use it, and obtain it through the black market. Available through regulated channels, it would simply end the crime ridden black markets, and promote a healthy environment free of HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis and overdoses. Prohibition policies are based on fiction. They destroy society by creating an environment of crime and corruption, as well as giving government "Big Brother" powers over the lives, recreational habits, and choices of all citizens. And prohibition policies create vast bureaucracies. And the lies and propaganda which these bureaucracies must create and disseminate, in order to prop up their fiction, can cause aware and thinking people to develop a tragic deep and permanent distrust of the government, of the hardworking people in law enforcement, and of the political process. Prohibition and the forces that support it are enemies of liberty and domestic tranquility. While there may be issues with the use, and sometimes abuse, of various recreational drugs like alcohol, those issues and those people that abuse should be dealt with directly, instead of creating an unregulated black market that feeds the mouth of crime. That is all prohibition has ever done, and will ever do. http://www.drugwarfaq.com/ http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm The first web site is very informative about the considerable number of problems that the "WAR ON DRUGS" has given us. I recommend that you read it in its entirety. I do not agree with everything he says, but there is a lot of good info there.

Public Comments

the first couple sentence was interesting and true but my ADD kick in so sorry
First, I didn't read anything but your title. The amount you typed in your question is utterly rediculous. As for the question in your title, I think the war on drugs is helping ALOT. Our children are being taught at very young ages that drugs are bad, parents are able to talk with their children with more ease because the subject is so up front now and I think that its effective for the most part. There will always be drugs, thats something that won't ever go away. But the effort is being made and thats a step in the right direction.
I think the war's helpful and we may win it soon!
i think we need to maintain the war on drugs just to encourage the population its so bad we should never get involved with it. if we gave up it would become even more of a socail disorder. and the war does succeed to a certain point, when coke first came through miami in the peak back in the day it was cheap but now it is so expensive poor people are not able to afford it again, i think its pschocological more thenanything. unless you think that everyone should be allowed to be freely exposed to meth, crack and heroine, im sure everyone could deal with that stuff just fine.
I am a conservative Republican that agrees that the "War on Drugs" is stupid. Pot should be decriminalized because it is not criminal. Some drugs like Meth and Crack are horrible but but criminalizing them is not the best way to reduce them when it enriches criminals.
the war should be on addictive drugs , not weed , I do not like how weed gets lumped in with meth crack and smack.
it wouldn't stop crime. there would be more addicts if you could by crack at wal-mart. since crackheads don't have jobs they would steal and postitute themselves which would give the drug dealers a new business, runnin' the ho's. so fightin' over street corners would remain as would the trade in illegal guns. if gov't taxed k-mart crack to heavily to stop addicts bootleg crack would show up and nothing would be accomplished.
I agree with you. The war on drugs has been a farce. I think it is foolish to believe that you can legislate morality. As long as people have the freedom to make personal choices, there will always be a market for illicit drugs. I don't use drugs, but I feel that the attitude toward drug use in this country is a little skewed. In this country too many rules are based on morals rather than reality. If drugs were legal, I still wouldn't use them. But does that give me the right to tell others how to live? Of course not. A lot of people use drugs to escape the dire circumstances of their lives. If we use the money that we spend incarcerating drug users, and put it into education, health care and other social programs, maybe fewer unhappy people would turn to drugs.
You fell off the beam there a little at the end, but... You are essentially correct. With all the money the US, state and local governments spend on attempting to stop the production, sale and use of illegal drugs, you would think there would be less illegal drugs. But no! There is more! The obvious solution is to decriminalize drug use and to regulate and tax drugs. Drug addicts should be sent to see the doctor, not jail.
quite the worded statement there. the numbers more or less speak for themselves, but try this... aside from addiction, there is the chicness to illicit drugs and a rush people get from doing something bad. remember when you were a kid and you did something your parents said not to do? or when you are alone on a street and decide to run every stop sign and light? that feeling you get like you just got away with something without consequence, or you knew the consequences would be severe, so you just dodged a bullet. if you take away that illusion from the so called war on drugs, then it loses its appeal. no more will people have to hide to feed their addictions and possibly, POSSIBLY, people will wise up and get clean or never get dirty in the first place. dealers and king pins will lose their luster and enter the mainstream of the rich elite here. arrests will go down just as a matter of fact. no harm, no foul. if we decriminalize drug use in this or any country, there should be a catch to it. you are on your own. period. allow businesses to design their own drug policies. allow insurance companies to decide if they will pay for drug related illnesses or injuries. remember, it may be legal to get wasted, but it is no ones responsibility but your own to clean up the mess