THE DRUG WAR'S COST

Dirk Chase Eldredge in "Ending the War on Drugs": The United States has 5
percent of the world's population but consumes 60 percent of its illicit
drugs. The money generated to satisfy U.S. demandis the root cause of
drug-related corruption of public servants both at home and throughout the
hemisphere. Our hard-won progress in race relations is threatened by the
perception of many African Americans that the drug war is a racist plot.
Our police, courts and prisons are inundated by a flood of drug cases. Our
civil liberties are being eroded. Grossly inflated black-market prices for
drugs result in easy recruitment in the drug subculture of uninformed
adolescents. Crime and violence accompany the illegal drug trade to the
detriment of the guilty and the innocent alike.