WAR ON DRUGS: WE ARE FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE

America is clearly getting no closer to victory in the age-old War of Drugs
than we did in the war on booze during Prohibition. During the sixteen years
it was illegal to manufacture and sell alcoholic beverages in the country,
we saw the beginnings of organized crime and we made millions of otherwise
law-abiding Americans into criminals for the sake of a mug of beer or a
glass of wine. If we learned anything from that grand failure, it's that we
can't legislate morals. We also learned that what Americans want, Americans
find a way to get. Our attempts to eradicate drug abuse is deja vu.

It's not just a feeling that we've been here before, we have been here
before. From 1917 through 1933.

The War on Drugs is a colossal failure. We're no closer to our goal of
stopping drug use than we are getting warmer in our orbit of the sun. In
fact, we probably grow more distant every day. Just look at the numbers.

Nearly eight out of every ten crimes committed in this country today are
drug-related. Nearly eight out of every ten people in jail or prison are
there because they broke laws related to drugs. What drugs have been taken
off the streets?

Should we follow historic precedence and decriminalize marijuana, cocaine
and heroin? Our national conscience screams no!

Common sense whispers yes. But there is an ironic twist in this debate.

Many of the drugs causing much of our concern over abuse and crime are
already legal. They're made and sold every day to people who are presumably
following their doctors' orders but who, in many cases, are using taxpayer
subsidized health care to reap millions of dollars in profits by diverting
their medication to the streets. Do we legalize the diversion of legal
drugs?

Of course not. But we absolutely have to take a step back, take a deep
breath, and take a brand new look at how we are fighting this war. The first
step is admitting that we aren't just losing the fight, we're being routed,
and we're flushing tons of tax dollars down a bottomless toilet. As long as
we prosecute this war by emotion we will be forever making excuses for
failure. At some point, very soon, logic must enter the national debate.
Which is worse, the potential for creating more drug use by decriminalizing
certain drugs or the potential for creating more criminal drug abusers by
pursuing a no-win war? Truth is, we are creating more persistent drug
trafficking felons in Eastern Kentucky, anyway, than we are reforming in
jail because those people have even fewer economic choices once they have
been busted. What choices for change does an unemployed, undereducated dope
dealer have but to go back into "business" after doing time? As long as the
profits outweigh the risks, there are no alternatives for economic survival
and the demand for their "wares" is high, the dope dealers will always be in
business. Remove the profits through decriminalization, though, and the
incentive is gone. So is the crime, and the cost of battling it.

We are out of choices, people. Drug-related crime will multiply and be with
us as long as there is money to be made dealing and people willing to buy.
Prohibition proved that point, and billions and billions of dollars spent to
fight this War on Drugs have not changed that truth one bit. Billions more
won't either.

- --Scott Perry