My Turn

DRUG PROHIBITION COSTS MORE THAN IT'S WORTH

Once there was a terrorist who killed a lot of people and policemen. He was
funded by the American prohibition of alcohol. His name was Al Capone. He
didn't kill people because he was drunk; he killed them over the massive
amounts of money made possible by prohibition. Have you seen the new
anti-drug ads the government is running these days? You know, the ones
where they tell you that if you do drugs you support terrorism?

In one, little Timmy says, "I killed mothers, fathers, grandmas, grandpas,
sons, daughters, firemen and policemen." That is nothing more than propaganda!

The truth of the matter is this: Prohibition funds terrorism.

By keeping drugs illegal, our own government is responsible for the
terrible things for which drug money is used.

When prohibition is enforced, it creates a huge black market that makes
drugs worth their weight in gold and invites organized crime groups to
enter the picture. The product is sold, and the money makes its way to
places like Afghanistan. Then it gets into the hands of people like Osama
bin Laden, who use it to do things like blow up the World Trade Center.

Last I heard, the illegal drug trade was around $400 billion a year. If
drugs were legal, the majority of that money would stay right here in our
own country, where we could use it for things like funding our failing
education system, providing affordable health care, offering treatment
instead of prison for addicts and cleaning up the environment. Now,
undoubtedly, someone will say, "Well, if people wouldn't do drugs, then we
wouldn't have this problem."

While that may be true, it isn't realistic. Prohibition didn't have a
chance at stopping people from consuming alcohol, just as it doesn't have a
chance of stopping people from using drugs. As far back as human history
goes, so goes human drug use.

Remember, the first miracle of Jesus Christ was turning water into wine.
And as long as humans continue on this earth, so too will drug use.
Prohibition has never stopped one single person who wanted to get high from
doing so, and it never will. Prohibition of alcohol created Capone, the
infamous drive-by shooting and the gangster mentality.

Drug prohibition has created orphans, facilitated the spread of infectious
diseases, made the prison industry the fastest growing industry in America,
destroyed the lives of millions of people and is costing American taxpayers
about $609 a second.

There has to be a better way.

Loretta Nall is founder of the Alabama Marijuana Party.