A Hard Pill To Swallow (The Drug War)

I'm not even going to delve into this hot topic of mine as it has been gone over so much, I'm sick of it. Most violent crime and a huge percentage of crime as a whole is a direct result of the black market status of drugs. Billions and billions of dollars every single year are spent on tracking, arresting, prosecuting, etc. drug lords in Columbia, dealers in America, trafficers in America, etc. However, most people don't realize how much of that money is simply spent on arresting and prosecuting simple users. Users are put away for years and sometimes for the rest of their lives for using! Can you believe that a guy who rapes someone or even kills someone can get less time than a habitual user?!?! Completely crazy.

The solution is radical and this is why so many people put up stiff resistance. We must reverse the market for drugs. Making drugs legal (thereby taking them off the black market) does many things:

1)Greatly reduces the cost: This means it is less profitable for gangs and dealers to deal. This will have a trickle down effect to places like (for example) cocaine production and trafficking from Colombia, South America to the US...and heroine from Afghanistan, etc. etc.

2)Drugs will be free of "extras" and dosage can be easily regulated

3)Drugs will be taxable (many states already have Marijuana tax stamps if you did not know - for legal users). This means we will get a cashflow from this (HUGE)

4)Focus on Rehabilitation of habitual users. The huge cashflow from taxes can mostly be put toward rehab but also increase our country's homeless shelter systems. More money can also be used to build and strengthen community centers, after school programs, and sports programs for our children.

5)Strict Laws in affect for underage use (much like alcohol) as well as continued discouragement of use (but no wasteful programs)

6)Prison overcrowding reduction. A large portion of prisoners in our system have been jailed for use, cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, etc of drugs. These indivuals would be pardoned if no other crime had been committed. This would alone save billions upon billions of dollars each year not only on the Federal Level but for local state, county and city government.

7)Reduction in violence in our cities and towns. Countless deaths and injuries will be drastically reduced as a result of removing the marketability of drugs.

What I am speaking of would require legalization of all drugs - I'm talking about heroine, cocaine, opium, etc. Hard pill to swallow (hehe) I know. Like I said this is a very radical stance.
You could potentially go to the store, pick up some "E", a couple tabs of acid, and a joint for dessert. Don't forget the Codeine with Tylenol (hehe). Yeah, Tylenol would be pissed.

With this in mind, you would have people using the same argument as distribution of condoms in schools: "If you have it readily available, more people will do it.".

BULLSHIT! People that do it will do it regardless of price - we see this everyday. People break into pharmacies, steal chemicals from farms, jack cars, shoot kids in the head and all for what - a hit? Some extra cash?

What will happen is the junkie or habitual user will go in to get some drugs and also be faced with people there who want to help if they ask for it.

So we'll have zombies walking around stone-faced, right? No. If we see someone now sloshed drunk out of their minds, they go to jail to 'freshen up'. The same would happen with people being stupid. Also, drug-driving laws would be enacted that would be as tough if not tougher than current drunk driving laws.

So many different scenarios could come out of this, but you see the point. There are so many great benefits of this move that it shouldn't just be a pipe dream. Unfortunately, the way Amercica works is by a slow, methodical process.

You'll notice Western states are adopting more and more relaxed drug policies toward Marijuana. This movement is creeping slowly East...you watch it will cover the US in the next 20 years and you may be able to smoke a joint in public. Later.

Partnership for a Drug Free America

...another huge waste of money...this organization puts a boatload of crap on MTV.com, TV commercials, and they at least used to before video games at arcades (haha!). With children, I obviously feel that parents telling their children to not use certain drugs is key...but these huge
over-budgeted and tangled anti-drug organizations are mind-numbingly ineffective.

D.A.R.E

In middle school, many if not all of us went through Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It teaches us how drugs can lead to very bad things, that all drugs are bad, and bad people do drugs.

I transferred schools early on in my education so I had the distinct honor to go through D.A.R.E twice. While I found the entire set of lectures rather annoying and one-sided, I did like the part where they brought in all the drugs! For one lesson they brought in the K-9 drug sniffing dog and he had a particular interest in one of our classmates' backpack. This kid was known to have used drugs in school fairly often so I know he was sweating bullets. Oddly enough I think the trooper did not investigate!

D.A.R.E and other programs are readily scoffed at and mocked by students who by that age normally have already tried or are currently using drugs. The other kids who avoid drugs anyway are not really helped by this ridiculous waste of taxes.

I can honestly say I think for the majority of children who go through D.A.R.E. learn about cool new drugs they aren't supposed to use and guess what? When you tell a kid in middle school or high school that they aren't supposed to do something they will do it!

Studies have shown that D.A.R.E. has failed as a program. I'm not sure it is still going on...is it?
If it is, it should be stopped immediately.