THE MONEY'S DOWN THE DRAIN

Re "Where our money goes" by Kevin Wehr and students (SN&R Essay, June
25):

The "war on drugs" is certainly where a lot of our money
goes.

After 10 years of sobriety, I returned to active drug use and am
completely unable to see where our "war on drugs" has made any
difference in a decade. I have seen slight differences—like how the
number of individuals [who] will commit a crime to support their habit
seems to have risen. I wonder how many billions of dollars have been
spent to achieve this milestone, while our children's schools are
crumbling around them and millions of citizens have no health
insurance, people are losing jobs and soda pop is killing more people
from diabetes then illicit drugs are killing addicts.

We spend billions to destroy the supply which raises the price so that
the traffickers (who usually reside in a foreign country) make more
money, while the users (in our country) go broke, thus leading to such
crimes as assault, murder, home invasions, kidnapping, robbery, theft,
child endangerment, starvation, domestic violence, prostitution,
fraud, terrorism … and I could go on and on.

Instead, we could be spending our tax dollars right here in the good
old United States by attacking the demand and helping addicts. That
would create jobs, severely cut crime and end the never-ending
corruption in drug-producing countries like Afghanistan, Colombia and
so on.

At least 500 economists (including Nobel laureates Milton Friedman,
George Akerlof and Vernon L. Smith) have noted that reducing the
supply of marijuana without reducing the demand causes the price, and
hence the profits of marijuana sellers, to go up, according to the
laws of supply and demand. The increased profits encourage the
production of more drugs despite the risks, providing a theoretical
explanation for why attacks on drug supply have failed to have any
lasting effect.

A 2008 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron has estimated that
legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S.
economy—$44.1 billion from law-enforcement savings and at least $32.7
billion in tax revenue ($6.7 billion from marijuana, $22.5 billion
from cocaine and heroin, remainder from other drugs). Recent surveys
help to confirm the consensus among economists to reform drug policy
in the direction of decriminalization and legalization.

Why do the taxpayers in this country allow our government to beat a
dead horse? The citizens can effect any change they wish—and not just
by voting—but by knowing and communicating with their elected officials.

E.F.

Sacramento