War On Drugs

War on Drugs: A Waste of Tax Dollars

Illicit drug usage is a serious problem facing the U.S.; so far the government has been unsuccessful in finding an effective solution to this national crisis. As of now, the vast majority of governmental funding to solve the issue is going towards military operations in South America to stop the problem from the source, the growers and traffickers. This might seem like a reasonable ploy, to stop the problem from its source, but the use of illicit drugs amongst American citizens is growing more and more. The Department of Labor indicates that drug use is rising by looking at the growing number of positive work related drug tests. (Substance Abuse Information Database) This war on drugs is truly a waste of tax dollars.

A good definition of the word drug is a substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body. Drugs can be classified into different categories: medical, illicit, and simple. Medical being such products as aspirin, illicit being drugs such as cocaine, heroin or marijuana, and simple being drugs such as nicotine, or caffeine. The drug war focuses only on illicit drugs, these being the strongest non-remedial and the most forbidden drugs on the market. These drugs have intense abilities to temporarily change the natural structure of our bodies and brains.

Why do people deliberately change the biological functioning of their bodies by using these drugs? Illicit drugs are a way for people to temporarily escape from their normal, sometimes strenuous realities and change the face of their personalities. During the high, the user feels more at peace and feels invincible. It is a short-lived bliss.

Cocaine is a very serious problem in the United States. In a lab study, a scientist found that monkeys who are addicted to cocaine will repeatedly press a lever more than 12,000 times in order to receive a cocaine injection (NIDA- Director's Report to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse). It is a powerful presence in the brain if given the chance. It will overpower the need for anything else, and the user is left as a craving addict who has lost the power to recognize his potential and his grasp on reality.

This "War on Drugs" only makes the problem worse as it is aimed to raise the price for illicit drugs. The distributors are finding fewer ways for the drugs to enter our country; also the traffickers know that penalties for drug trafficking are only getting harsher. If the drug war were successful (which it isn't), the price for drugs to successfully enter the country would rise at a fast pace. This leaves the addicts in the country more destitute and needy than ever. It also leads to more violence, as gang and drug violence only escalates if the price for drugs is higher.

It seems that a much better solution to the drug problem facing our country would be to spend more money on educating the people about the dangers of drugs, use more funding on rehabilitation, and or even fund new technologies to make drugs safer and less addictive.

Our tax dollars are being misspent on inefficient drug programs. Douglas McVay, a renowned editorialist and author of many drug related books quotes "Of the close to $11.4 billion that the government had allocated for drug prevention in 2004, less than $2.4 billion went towards domestic rehabilitation and education programs which the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has control over, the rest of the money went towards domestic and international agencies and operations to thwart drug use and trafficking" (Alternatives to Incarceration). Rehabilitation should be the main focus of the drug issue.

If the government spent more money on educating the youths about the true dangers of drugs and funded efficient rehabilitation centers, the American people would not have to be forced away from drug use which costs the government tens of billions of dollars. They would stay away from these drugs by choice.

Most drug users have enough brain capacity to learn why doing these illicit drugs can lead to serious long-term problems. Trying to stop the problem from the source doesn't seem to be having a positive effect on drug usage. So, we should focus more on proper drug education rather than on stopping drug trafficking.

Of course, not all citizens would choose not to use these drugs. That's why drug rehabilitation should be a mandatory presence for drug users, not jail time. The White House Drug Policy Administration reports "from October 1, 2000, to September 30, 2001, there were 12,457 Federal drug arrests for cocaine, representing 37% of all Federal drug arrests"(ONDCP). These are only federal offenses, not including state offenses. The Drug Enforcement Agency estimates that over 400,000 people are now in U.S. jails and prisons for drug law violations (Drug Trafficking in the United States). Our prisons are overcrowded and under funded (Overcrowded Prisons of Forty States under Court Orders); some of the inmates were incarcerated for simple marijuana violations. We should not punish these people but enlighten them into the world of a sober reality. This would not only profoundly benefit their lives but it would also save our country billions of dollars. A 1999 RAND study concluded that "$34 million invested in treatment reduces cocaine use as much as $366 million invested in interdiction or $783 million in source-country programs" (Assessment of U.S. Drug Problems and Policy).

As a country devoted to freedom, our government should not limit its people's liberties by outlawing drugs. If we do not have the right to decide what we do with our own bodies in a way that does not conflict with the health of others, then we really don't have any rights at all. But as a government seeking to protect its people, the U.S. should have a policy of discouragement towards drug usage. We should not incarcerate drug abusers. Isolating a person from the rest of society for his drug problem leads him feeling lower than human, a feeling that will probably stick with him when he is releases sending him down the spiral of drugs yet again. Instead of incarcerating drug users, the government should educate its people to remain healthy for their own well-being, and part of being healthy is staying clear of problem-causing drugs.

If the U.S. stops source-country programs, and favored rehabilitation over incarceration, the world might follow our footsteps. "We spend upward of $50 billion a year combating narcotics." (America's Drug War Escalates, pg. 17) If we chose to rehabilitate and educate rather than fight a hopeless war we would have a great portion of this money to use on other issues such as education, or the energy crisis.

Incarcerating