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| Yes | 82% | 53 votes | Total: 65 votes | |
| No | 18% | 12 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesOne of the largest problems with our current efforts to reduce drug use is that we look at drugs as something wholly different from what they are. Drugs are not a sentient force that can be fought, or a corrupting demon that needs exorcism, drugs are a commodity that is bought and sold much the same way corn is. In order to reduce the use of drugs in this country, we must treat it as we would treat any other market force.
For one, attacking the supply of drugs, specifically our policy of spraying fields, is not an effective measure, and it is certainly a costly one. It hurts the farmers who grow drugs, generally out of desperation more than greed. It hurts the country where we spray them, by inciting protests against our policies. It hurts our country too by using large amounts of money in very ineffective ways. We're looking at drugs as something that can be fought or killed, we should look at it as a market trend to be controlled.
The only way to reduce the use of drugs is to reduce the demand of drugs. Economics teaches that the only way you'll ever see a drop in supply is by reducing demand to the point that there is a surplus of supply. The best way to reduce demand is to target those who consume the most drugs, the addicts. Currently, the US does not have a large enough program for treating addicts as people suffering from an addiction instead of criminals to be punished. While legalization of drugs is perhaps not the answer, making those who come forward capable of getting help without being prosecuted as criminals is an important step forward.
If addicts knew that, by going to any local hospital, they would be guaranteed treatment that would wean them off drugs, in addition to job training skills that would get them back on their feet, many would be able to kick their habit without the need for searching them out. Most addicts don't like living in squalor, looking for their next fix. By giving addicts an alternative that is not jail, we create a situation where it makes much more sense to come forward, admit addiction, and get help in a way that is non-coercive and not a monetary hardship. Be getting the hardcore addicts off the streets, we can greatly reduce the demand for drugs, while, simultaneously lifting those in hardcore addiction out of poverty by providing them job training and job placement.
Reducing the demand is the only way to reduce the use of drugs. Demand arises from desperation, depression, poverty and addiction. Only be treating these societal ills can we ever hope to make our nation's gross drug abuse problem less prevelant.
Learn more about this author, Bryan Jennings.
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No
Many years ago there was a television program about the Vice Squad in Miami Florida. The two main characters in the Miami Vice world consisted of Don Johnson, known as Crockett and his partner Tubbs who every week fought the winless war of drug suppliers and the stooges that were hooked. No matter how many lower echelon arrests were made, the war waged against the public flourished.
It was in th Final edition of Miami Vice that the whole truth of the matter was revealed. After many years of running in circles to solve the problem: their lives were in danger and the realization that in many cases that they worked under those with the power to yield life or death. Realizing that it was impossible to solve the problem as long as those responsible for the drugs worked inside the law enforcement or political structure.
The term War on Drugs is nothing more than a misnomer without a beginning, or an end. It is nothing more than a sham operation to convince the population that action is being taken to halt the suicides, murders, prostitution and many other acts that are contrary to better public health. The Power of Money has too much influence who have found untold wealth co-operating with those that care not for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Drug lord's have open gates on the Mexican Border as the Border Control Guards are arrested and jailed for doing their job: while those that are guilty are released, only to import more illicit drugs upon our children. As wrong as Attorney Generals continue to procecute innocent students for a rape without their reasonable doubt being injected as in North Carolina, what hope have we? The Texas border control gaurds also have been denighed theirresonable doubt as they were convicted and sent to prison on the word of the drug smuggler.
This is the bone chilling truth that there is no more efficient and ethical way to reduce drug abuse when those who control the network remain in positions of power. As was evident to Crockett and Tubbs, it is better to walk away and live than to fight the concealed enemy; who would end their exsistence in order to protect their ability to remain out of sight.
Learn more about this author, Francis Palmieri.
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