by Stone Handy

Created on: July 17, 2008

The Harm of Drugs vs the War on Drugs.

There is no doubt there are harmful effects from the abuse of drugs, legal and illegal. Alcohol and tobacco lead the field in harmful effects with tobacco taking over 400,000 lives per year and alcohol accounting for 110,000 lives. Prescription and over-the-counter drugs, taken as directed, are next in total deaths per year. All illegal drugs, totaled together, are a distant last.

There is also living damage from years of abuse in loss of jobs, poor health, disappointed spouses, neglected children and loss of self esteem for those who become addicted to drugs. A relatively small number of users actually become addicted, with the exception of cigarettes, crack and methamphetamine.

Yet, In 1972 President Nixon coined the phrase "War on Drugs," and set in motion one of the most foolhardy and damaging ventures in the history of our country. His administration and our elected officials declared war on an estimated 50 million Americans with the stroke of a pen.

This war on has failed on every front. The World Health Organization recently issued a report documenting the failure of the drug policies of the United States. In a survey of 17 nations the United States came in first in the level of marijuana use with 42 percent of Americans having tried marijuana. New Zealand, also with draconian drug laws, slipped in second at 41 percent. The Netherlands, by contrast, with very lenient drug laws where adults can possess small amounts of marijuana, was among the lowest at 19.8 percent having tried marijuana.
The Marxist army in Columbia, (FARC) a relative blip on the screen in the sixties is now funded by income from illicit drugs. Their conflict with the Columbian government has left swaths of Columbia's rural areas devastated and impoverished and some cities riddled with crime. Even with American drug enforcement policies that funded, armed and trained an army to fight illicit drug trade there, ninety percent of cocaine and two thirds of the heroine sold in the United States comes from Columbia.

One would have to confiscate 75 percent of illegal drugs to make a dent in the profits and we barely get 30 percent of the cocaine and 12 percent of the heroine.

The war on drugs was supposed to make America a safer place.
After thirty years our neighborhoods are infested by gangs who have no problem killing over a profitable street corner. Drive by shootings, shootings at malls and on city streets make some neighborhoods so dangerous residents

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