MEXICO HAS A LEGITIMATE GRIPE WHEN IT COMES TO OUR DRUG HABIT

We are in danger of becoming a society without a moral
compass.

I never thought that I would see a statement such as the following (as
reported in the Washington Post).

For background, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico was defending his
drug war as vital to the country's national security -- more than
23,000 people have died in drug-related violence since December 2006.

President Calderon directly blamed the United States with this
statement: "The origin of our violence problem begins with the fact
that Mexico is located next to the country that has the highest levels
of drug consumption in the world. It is as if our neighbor were the
biggest drug addict in the world."

What a devastating indictment of our culture. And according to the
statistics that I have been able to review, it is absolutely true. As
a people, we have utterly failed in recent years to set a positive
course for those following. Though the problem may have started as a
small fissure in the dam of social responsibility, it has grown into a
gaping hole in the fabric of our society.

By way of comparing the 23,000 deaths in Mexico's drug war since 2006,
the United States has suffered approximately 4,406 combat deaths in
Iraq (our "allies" have suffered 318) since 2003. Each of those
appalling numbers is unconscionable.

While the United States has less than 5 percent of the world's
population, its people consume 60 percent of all illegal drugs
produced in the world. President Calderon appears to have hit the nail
on the head.

The school population in the United States is approximately 50
million, and roughly 27 million of them try drugs and alcohol each
year.

Researchers for the "New Scientist" concluded that the question of
legalization of marijuana is not "if" but "when." It has been
generally accepted that the use of marijuana is a precursor to the use
of "harder" drugs.

We have roughly 2.3 million people in our prisons and jails. Nearly 80
percent of those are for drug-related charges. The upkeep for them
represents a tab of some $60 billion to $80 billion a year -- that is
your money, folks. But on the flip side, those are 2.3 million people
who do not show up in the unemployment figures.

I know there are those who voice their opinion that tobacco, alcohol,
automobiles, etc. kill more people than illegal drugs, but that is not
the question. Illegal drugs impair the ability of users to act in a
rational manner.

The use of illegal drugs is something that is not diminishing but is
growing exponentially. Is incarceration the answer? I think not, but
an answer must be placed before us, lest our society falls as did the
Romans and others before us.

It is difficult for some to find a positive role model and will only
become more so if the present trend continues. However, each of us can
and should set a course, for those following, which is absent of
illegal drugs and undo indulgence of other items that may affect a
clear mind.

Bayne's column runs every Sunday. He lives in Culpeper.