How do you feel about the War on Drugs?

Question

• The US estimates we spend $45 billion a year on Drug Prohibition. $30 billion of that is spent on incarceration alone.
• Drug use has increased in every category measurable since the prohibition of drugs began.
• The average markup of legal drugs (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol) is 18%, where the average markup for illegal drugs (cocaine, heroin, meth) is closer to 1000%. In other words, the ‘risk’ factor for selling drugs is a massive premium that makes drug trafficking a substantial business. Estimates range in the hundreds of billions a year, but are impossible to measure.
• Prohibition creates a market that wouldn’t be there for extraordinarily dangerous drugs, such as Meth and Crack.
• The US estimates only about 10-20% of all illegal drugs are actually intercepted. Hardly an effective number.
• Prohibition limits pharmaceutical studies and use. THC is clearly beneficial to Cancer & Chemo patients, as well as Parkinson’s sufferers.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.

Are we justifying the cost of prohibition with results? Would it be more effective to legalize, regulate and tax some of the safer illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Could we make $45 billion a year and use that money more effectively to promote rehabilitation– similar to how we treat nicotine addiction?

Your thoughts please- thanks.

Thanks slapnut. You're a humanitarian.

Good point nonzedder- although, last time I checked, Amsterdam was doing just fine.

Welcome to the political section smellyfoot. Politics is just one rhetorical question after another.

Deno- point taken, but addictive and detramental drugs are already legal. In Fact Nicotine is more addictive than Heroin and Cocaine and causes more deaths a year. Yet, it's legal, regulated and its users heavily taxed to take the burden of their health problems off of non-smokers. And it works- in NY, stop smoking aids are subsidized with those tax dollars and are provided free. Smoking has decreased by 25%.

whcwarrior, your argument holds no water since murder is not a thriving business, nor a taxable comodity that can be regulated.

I'd like to point out to people using Crack and crack heads.

Crack is only around becasue Cocaine is illegal and so expensive. Crack is extremely addictive in that it delivers cocaine almost directly to the brain in a solluble form. This makes it far more dangerous than cocaine in signifigantly less quantities. The market is only there becasue of the 'risk premium' on cocaine.

Answer 1

Hey I agree that the US is beating its head against a brick wall when it comes to battling the drug trade.

Maybe its time for a new strategy? I've always been a fan of rehabilitation and drug education. Maybe we should gradually phase out enforcement and increase those instead? Seeing as how people are obviously not going to stop using drugs.

However, there would of course be public health and safety concern that you would have to address. You couldn't simply stop enforcement cold turkey without some sort of regulatory mechanism in place to pick up the slack. i.e. taxation.

Either way it would be a hard sell trying to convince people to allow crackheads to have their crack because drug addicts/dealers can certainly be dangerous to the general populous. So you'd have to convince everyone that their house isn't going to get broken into by allowing everyone to have their drugs.

Just a thought.

Answer 2

When one nation is conquered by an invader, some things can be expected. These include zealous indoctrination of schoolchildren to try to make them sympathize or indentify with the new ruler, diligent surveillance of citizens to nip uprisings of resistance in the bud, and policies that permit the police state to search and seize and make arrests with a great deal of latitude for determining cause, protocol, and permissible use of force.
My country is the place I live and the people who live there with me. The government that reigns there, however, is not a natural or essential part of that country. I see that country, which perpetrates a war on its citizens with the lame excuse of its own puritanical concerns that someone might be using chemicals to experience forbidden consciousness or have a good time, as a tyrant who ought to be deposed or at least humbled.

Answer 3

Take pot off that list, and you cut that number by 30 billion. I'm not ready to see crack being sold at Walgreens however. I would like to see a focus on dangerous drugs, and stop wasting our time and money on pot heads and pot dealers. To the 30 billion on enforcement that we would be saving, the government could probably realize another 10 billion in tax revenue. In essence, using the income from pot sales to pay for the enforcement of policing of dangerous drugs.

Answer 4

I feel like it's a waste of money and time. This war on drugs only turns non-criminals into criminals. Remember the prohibition of alcohol? That was a mistake as well. We should learn from the past and just let this war on drugs go away.

Answer 5

The only reason drugs are illegal is because they have a terrible affect on a economy.

Getting all the pleasure in the world - out of a pill (which costs a dollar)sort of kills all the legal legitimate and expensive competition..(like alchol etc)

When drugs "are" the economy, (like in afghanistan) we have american troops trying to protect poppy fields.

They are also at odds to the work ethic in America where the working classes have to suffer to wring any pleasure out of life... a cheap pill - that gives immense physical and pschological pleasure.. just sort of destroys this theory/necessity.

Answer 6

Will, Frist resign after some inside trading deal went wrong

"Sicko" seems to be doing pretty good

The drug lords are running the US Congress/White House and Supreme Court like a Cattle Farm.

Answer 7

it particularly is been way too high priced in terms of the two time and money that would desire to be spent helping human beings into rehab. yet i'm particular some human beings have been helped this variety. I do in simple terms no longer think of it particularly is the main suitable, nor the main humane way of decreasing the habit problem.

Answer 8

I feel that it's futile and expensive. We should switch our drug policy to our alcohol policy. It should be illegal to drive under the influence of drugs, crime committed under the influence should have no mitigating effect on conviction or sentencing (i.e., no "I couldn't help it I was drunk/drugged" argument), and any harm that comes to the user and the user alone should be their problem not the government's.

Answer 9

I thought we lost the war on drugs years ago i dnt think everything should be legal but i think our country has a problem with giving people free will to do whatever they want

Answer 10

Wait a minute - do you want my opinion or do you want me to agree with your opinion? Why did you ask how I feel about something only to bombard me with how you feel about it....

Anyways, I think it's a waste of time. I think that drugs should be decriminalized. BUT I think people should be responsible for their actions. If you commit a crime while on drugs, you should be punished. If you can handle your high in a peaceful manner that affects no one but yourself, go for it.