TAKING THE PROFIT OUT OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

A child is only a potential customer to a drug dealer. A drug dealer
does not care what a child's aspirations are, a child's hopes or
dreams, or a child's potential. All a drug dealer cares about is the
money they can squeeze out of every child they enslave on illegal drugs.

The reality, which is not being faced by politicians, is that until we
take the profits out of drug dealing, we will never stop illegal
drugs. But this will never happen as long as we continue our current
drug policy, "the war on drugs."

Prohibition of any addictive substance has never worked. Remember
prohibition, when authorities cracked down on alcohol from 1920-1933?
Bootlegging, gangsters, speakeasies, territorial wars, shootings and
human casualties were the outcome.

Prohibition didn't work then and does not work today. For example, if
we outlaw and demonize tobacco and alcohol as we do illegal drugs, the
criminal elements will move in and their cartels will make fortunes
black-marketing these substances.

For nearly four decades we have poured over a trillion dollars into
the "war on drugs" and have had 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug
offenses. Yet drug trafficking continues to increase. The Obama
administration even recently declared that Mexican drug cartels are no
longer just a criminal issue. Now the White House considers these
organizations and gangs a serious threat to national security.

Any child's future can be ruined by one mistake experimenting with an
illegal drug, getting arrested, and then having to live with a
criminal record. Drug addiction should not be a crime. It is a health
issue. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) puts it this way.
"Every year we choose to continue this war will cost U.S. taxpayers
another 69 billion dollars. Despite all the lives we have destroyed
and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more
potent, and far easier to get than they were 35 years ago at the
beginning of the war on drugs. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our
streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than
ever before. We would suggest that this scenario must be the very
definition of a failed public policy."

When a person becomes addicted, the drug dealer begins squeezing the
victim for more money. When the victim's money runs out, the victim
resorts to crime. Many female victims resort to prostitution. The drug
dealer buys weapons and goes to war against his/her competition. The
drug dealers buy off law enforcement or at least try to. Most
corruption in law enforcement stems from the drug trade. The cycle
continues-- more drugs, more crime.

America's insatiable appetite for illegal drugs is funding drug
cartels in Mexico, which are threatening to turn that country into a
failed state. Mexican drug wars are spilling over into the United
States. Heroin traffickers bankroll the Taliban in Afghanistan, whose
religious terrorists vow to kill our troops. Drug cartels worldwide
have more military resources than many third-world countries. South
American countries are constantly under the threat of de-stabilization
from drug lords who are as powerful as governments.

In the United States, we have seen overkill in the rise of
paramilitary police raids, which threaten our civil liberties under
the guise of the war on drugs. We cannot afford to lose our rights
under the Fourth Amendment which guard us against unreasonable
searches and seizures, further damaging our democracy.

The only way we can break this cycle is to face reality and legalize
drugs. This would involve sensibly regulating and controlling drugs
and establishing a network of treatment centers. More importantly, it
would take the profits out of the drug trafficking.

We tax tobacco products and alcohol and they are addictive substances.
But we don't have people committing nearly as much crime to get these
substances as we do from those who are addicted to illegal drugs. If
there are no profits, illegal drug traffickers have no incentive to
continue hooking our children. And treatment is far less expensive
than prison.

We have many people addicted to alcohol and tobacco, but since it is
taxed, controlled and regulated, we don't find people robbing and
stealing to support their addiction as we do from those addicted to
illegal drugs. We no longer jail alcoholics unless they are a threat
to themselves or others.

We can get a handle on the drug problem. But we must change our
attitude toward enforcement, legalization and treatment. Building more
prisons to house non-violent drug offenders has become one of our
fastest growing industries, but the cost of housing a prisoner in one
of our prisons is now $20,000 to $30,000 a year. It is cheaper to
enroll in one of America's prestigious universities than to keep a
prisoner in jail for a year.

Politicians need to face the reality that what we are doing in the
insane "war on drugs" is not working. Legalization and
decriminalization of the drug problem may or may not be the answer. It
is time to admit that what we have been doing for over thirty years
has not worked. Legalization and treatment programs need to be given a
chance. The public-- and taxpayers-- continue to suffer from the
policies of the "war on drugs" while the drug cartels, gangs and
dealers thrive. Politicians must face this reality.

Bob Scott is a former newspaper reporter and officer of the
law.