WAR ON DRUGS COSTLY, FUTILE

This Saturday, I had the privilege of turning the ripe old age of 18.
The United States Constitution now grants me the right to join the
military and vote for every representative in public office.

I am now a legal adult in the state of Texas, which grants me the
right to smoke cigarettes. Fortunately, through the effort of my
parents and hundreds of hours of after school programming, I have
found myself to be impervious to the urge of smoking.

According to the Center for Disease Control, "Each year in the United
States, approximately 440,000 persons die of a cigarette
smoking-attributable illness, resulting in 5.6 million years of
potential life lost, $75 billion in direct medical costs, and $82
billion in lost productivity." The Surgeon General warns that the use
of tobacco causes cancer of the mouth and throat, even if you do not
inhale; it can cause lung cancer and heart disease; it can also
increase the risk of infertility, stillbirth and low birth weight.

Despite the fact that one of the state goals of our government is
protection of the people, it still finds it fit to allow the sale and
distribution of such a harmful product.

The government allows people to slowly kill themselves because
cigarettes, and the tobacco trade, are an essential part of the
American economy.

The United States has spent billions of taxpayers' dollars on The War
on Drugs. Since the late 1960's, propaganda chronicling the noble
effort of the Drug Enforcement Agency has been shoved down Americans'
throats.

In the early 1960's, recreational drugs, including marijuana, became
fashionable among young, white, middle class Americans. During this
time, drug use became representative of protest and social rebellion
in the era's atmosphere of political unrest.

In order to put to rest the sentiment against what seemed to be the
entirety of the youth, in 1968 the Beureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs was created.

Over the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has been waged on the streets
of our country. The question that remains is what this war has
actually accomplished.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy outlined that "in 2003
alone, over 19 billion dollars were spent on the war on drugs." From
2003 to 2004, drug use and trafficking decreased by less than one
percent. According to drugwarfacts.org, 786,545 marijuana-related
arrests were made in 2005, the majority of which resulted in minor
possession charges. The cost of keeping an average offender in prison
is $160 a day or $58,000 annually.

What benefit is this providing for our country?

Statistics show that during the past 40 years, the DEA has had no
effect on the fluctuation of drug-related crime.

The agency has put forth the same effort during the highs and lows of
the drug market; and though they were accredited for the low, they
were unable to prevent the high.

One of the primary targets of the drug war is use and sale of
marijuana. Even though marijuana, untainted with other substances,
produces fewer risks than a cigarette, the government continues to
allow the sale of cigarettes and continues to arrest those who use or
sell marijuana. According to the Surgeon General, the chronic use of
marijuana presents less harm than the chronic use of cigarettes. Over
4 billion dollars were used in 2005 for the prevention of marijuana.

In the United States, 20.9% of the adult population is estimated to be
a smoker, nearly 23.3% of high school student population and 8.1% of
middle school student population. If one in five of these people are
expected to die, which should be considered the more egregious crime?

The primary purpose of government continues to be ignored by our
elected representatives: the protection of the people.

The illogical and futile war on drugs has proven to be more important
to our representatives than the wellbeing of millions of their
constituents.