CHANGE STRATEGY IN DRUG WAR

Drug cartels are causing damage, violence, and chaos at and near the
United States' border with Mexico. The origin of this chaos is drug
addiction in the United States. President Obama has pointed out that
people who buy those drugs are paying to sponsor the drug cartels and
the violence that flows from them.

Over the decades, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of
dollars of tax money "fighting" and supporting the fight with the
drug dealers. It does not work. We are in a deep hole, and we keep on digging.

How can we get out of that hole? In some parts of the world,
treatment of drug addicts has made a big difference. It reduces
demand for drugs, and without that demand, the supply dwindles and
violence is reduced. We need an army of addiction therapists in this
country, but we are not working on that. As a nation, we are addicted
to military and police actions that are not effective in addressing
the drug problem.

We need to learn to take the high road in reducing drug addiction.

Ray MacNair