WAR ON DRUGS

I'm writing about: "Former User: We're Losing The War On Drugs" (4-17-04).
I agree. Not because we have not spent enough money. In the past 35 years
we have increased our drug enforcement budget by greater than 295 fold.

No matter how much money we throw down the drug war rat hole, we will never
be able to nullify the immutable law of supply and demand. As long as
people want recreational drugs and they are willing to pay a substantial
price for the drugs, somebody will produce the drugs and somebody else will
get the drugs to the willing buyers. This is guaranteed.

And we are losing the war on drugs, not because we haven't arrested enough
people for using or selling drugs. The war on drugs has transformed the
former "Land of Liberty" into the most incarcerated nation on the planet
and in history.

We're losing the war on drugs because politicians think they can cure a
minor illness by passing legislation against it. Instead they have created
a major epidemic. In the 1960s we had a minor amphetamine problem, so our
U.S. Congress passed the U.S. Drug Abuse Regulation and Control Act of 1970
thus criminalizing amphetamine. As a result, we now have a meth problem 100
times greater than our amphetamine problem of the 1960s.

Thus, the seeds of today's meth problem were planted in 1970.

Kirk Muse