THIS IS THE U.S. ON DRUGS

Only Cops and Crooks Have Benefited From $2.5 Trillion Spent Fighting
Trafficking.

The United States' so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old
saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop
digging. Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat
drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400
million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for
the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition
- -- with little to show for it. Is anyone actually benefiting from
this war? Six groups come to mind.

The first group are the drug lords in nations such as Colombia,
Afghanistan and Mexico, as well as those in the United States. They
are making billions of dollars every year -- tax free.

The second group are the street gangs that infest many of our cities
and neighborhoods, whose main source of income is the sale of illegal drugs.

Third are those people in government who are paid well to fight the
first two groups. Their powers and bureaucratic fiefdoms grow larger
with each tax dollar spent to fund this massive program that has been
proved not to work.

Fourth are the politicians who get elected and reelected by talking
tough -- not smart, just tough -- about drugs and crime. But the
tougher we get in prosecuting nonviolent drug crimes, the softer we
get in the prosecution of everything else because of the limited
resources to fund the criminal justice system.

The fifth group are people who make money from increased crime. They
include those who build prisons and those who staff them. The prison
guards union is one of the strongest lobbying groups in California
today, and its ranks continue to grow.

And last are the terrorist groups worldwide that are principally
financed by the sale of illegal drugs.

Who are the losers in this war? Literally everyone else, especially
our children.

Today, there are more drugs on our streets at cheaper prices than
ever before. There are more than 1.2 million people behind bars in
the U.S., and a large percentage of them for nonviolent drug usage.
Under our failed drug policy, it is easier for young people to obtain
illegal drugs than a six-pack of beer. Why? Because the sellers of
illegal drugs don't ask kids for IDs. As soon as we outlaw a
substance, we abandon our ability to regulate and control the
marketing of that substance.

After we came to our senses and repealed alcohol prohibition,
homicides dropped by 60% and continued to decline until World War II.
Today's murder rates would likely again plummet if we ended drug prohibition.

So what is the answer? Start by removing criminal penalties for
marijuana, just as we did for alcohol. If we were to do this,
according to state budget figures, California alone would save more
than $1 billion annually, which we now spend in a futile effort to
eradicate marijuana use and to jail nonviolent users. Is it any
wonder that marijuana has become the largest cash crop in California?

We could generate billions of dollars by taxing the stuff, just as we
do with tobacco and alcohol.

We should also reclassify most Schedule I drugs (drugs that the
federal government alleges have no medicinal value, including
marijuana and heroin) as Schedule II drugs (which require a
prescription), with the government regulating their production,
overseeing their potency, controlling their distribution and allowing
licensed professionals (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists,
etc.) to prescribe them. This course of action would acknowledge that
medical issues, such as drug addiction, are best left under the
supervision of medical doctors instead of police officers.

The mission of the criminal justice system should always be to
protect us from one another and not from ourselves. That means that
drug users who drive a motor vehicle or commit other crimes while
under the influence of these drugs would continue to be held
criminally responsible for their actions, with strict penalties. But
that said, the system should not be used to protect us from ourselves.

Ending drug prohibition, taxing and regulating drugs and spending tax
dollars to treat addiction and dependency are the approaches that
many of the world's industrialized countries are taking. Those
approaches are ones that work.