AN EVEN EXCHANGE

With a gun to his head and duct tape around his feet, mouth and eyes,
Jake* was told he'd be killed.

"They could have easily just popped it, walked out the door and
gotten away with murder," Jake says.

On that day several months ago, Jake was robbed for thousands of
dollars in drugs, cash and valuables from his apartment.

Jake was a target because of his business: drug dealing. Jake, who is
young enough to be an underclassman but is not attending college, has
profited thousands of dollars from selling mostly marijuana and
sometimes other drugs to ASU students and Valley residents.

"'Put your nose to the floor, I'm going to blow your fucking head
off,'" Jake says one man repeatedly threatened as the others
ransacked his apartment for money, valuables and marijuana.

ASU and other college students are a valuable part of his customer
base, Jake says.

America's addiction

Demand for illegal drugs is high in the U.S. About 25 percent of the
world's supply of illegal drugs are consumed here, according to the
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

More than 10,000 ASU students, or 19.5 percent of the student
population, will use illegal drugs this month, if the 2007 report on
college drug use by the Center is accurate.

Other studies have produced similar drug use estimates for college students.

Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the U.S., with nearly
17 percent of American college students using marijuana last month
and 30 percent using the drug last year, according to the 2006
Monitoring the Future survey.

In the general population, 8.3 percent of people 12 and older have
used an illegal drug in the past month, according to the 2006
National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

In 2000 -- the last year numbers were available -- Americans spent an
estimated $64 billion on illegal drugs, according to a report by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Jake claims he made approximately $10,000 in profit during the month
of December. It is clear Jake can easily make well above the average
income, just by dealing marijuana.

Jake's lucrative business

Jake says he started out as a small-time dealer in high school. He
now sometimes sells several pounds of marijuana each week, for a
profit of over $1,000 per pound.

Jake says he buys medicinal-quality marijuana for cheap prices in
California and brings it to Arizona to sell for high profits. He says
he often receives up to 100 phone calls a day relating to drug sales.
Dealing marijuana doesn't concern him as immoral, Jake says.

"It's not like I'm selling crack, you know what I'm saying?" he says.
"It's supply and demand."

He lives a luxurious lifestyle and smokes about two ounces of
high-grade marijuana every week.

"I'm planning on doing this the rest of my life," Jake says of his
dealing. "It's a job; I couldn't even explain how easy it is."

Deputy Chief Bill Knight of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Criminal Investigations Bureau says drug dealing is similar to other
professions from a business standpoint.

"Most of the time we run into people that don't have legitimate
jobs," Knight says of his encounters with drug dealers. "They've got
a business to run. As money increases, lifestyle tends to increase."

Jake says he makes more money than many of his customers who work
harder than him, and his customers sometimes resent him for it.

"People will hate you for it," he says of his income.

But the profit doesn't come without a price, Jake says.

"I've been robbed four times," he says.

Jake's customer base

Sarah*, an ASU underclassman, is one of Jake's approximately 50
regular customers.

"[Jake] is a phenomenal example of a businessman," she says. "When he
got robbed, he just bought a small amount of pot and worked his way back up."

Sarah smokes marijuana daily and estimates her monthly use to be
about two ounces, amounting to about $360. She says she usually buys
marijuana from Jake and two other dealers.

"I've got a pretty good disposable income," she says.

While many studies show the use of marijuana and other illegal drugs
is linked to bad grades, Sarah is enrolled full-time with a GPA above 3.5.

"Pot doesn't hinder me from learning," she says.

Sarah says drug laws have never stopped her from doing drugs. She has
experimented with harder drugs like heroin, methamphetamines and
cocaine. For the past two years, she has rarely used anything but
marijuana and occasionally hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin mushrooms.

"It's really difficult to talk to people about having done drugs like
that because it very much categorizes you," she says. "Who I am was
always more prevalent than the drugs."

Sarah says she would never want to be involved with drug dealing, but
she says it is profitable.

"You definitely make good money," she says.

ASU student-dealers

Chris*, an upperclassman at ASU, uses, sells and distributes illegal
drugs. He occasionally makes money from drug deals, but usually just
helps his friends get illegal drugs, he says.

"Once every week, people call me," he says. "Usually, I don't make a
profit." His current source of income is not dependent on drugs.

Last year, Chris says he sold marijuana and a small amount of cocaine
with a friend out of his ASU residence hall. While dealing last year,
he sold about an ounce a week, but says he let his friend keep the
money while he smoked marijuana for free.

In December, a friend paid him $300 to pick up a kilogram of cocaine
from a house in Phoenix for distribution by a larger drug-dealing organization.

"Just a week ago, this guy called me up for his mom's birthday. He
wanted to give her two ounces of marijuana," Chris says of a recent sale.

He claims he has sold almost everything at least once, from cocaine
and hallucinogenic mushrooms to methamphetamines and heroin.

"My roommate and his girlfriend wanted to have sex on ecstasy,
because they heard it was great, so I got them ecstasy," Chris says.

Chris has profited significantly from the drug trade, though he has
never made money by violence or manipulation, he says.

"It's possible, with minimal involvement, to make thousands every
month," he says.

Chris estimates he uses about $180 a week worth of mostly marijuana
and sometimes other illegal drugs. Lately, he is concerned about
studies that show smoking can cause hearing damage, he says.

"I'm planning on cutting back [on] hard narcotics, but I'm trying to
phase out marijuana," Chris says. He says if he uses a drug, it is
moral for him to sell or distribute it. If he stops using marijuana,
he will stop distributing it as well, he says.

But Chris says he'll probably use other illegal drugs for the rest of
his life. When he starts a family, he'll quit drugs, he says.

"Harder narcotics are just a part of the culture that I'm in, that I
choose to be in," Chris says. Over winter break, he says he went on a
"massive" cocaine binge, at one point snorting about 20 lines of coke.

But, like Sarah, his grades don't reflect his drug use. Chris is on
the Dean's List for his college. His ASU transcripts show more than
100 credit hours at ASU with a cumulative GPA above 3.9.

"I'm an academic star," he says.

Campus violations

Last year, ASU police arrested 181 people on three of the ASU
campuses for drug law violations, according to campus crime
statistics. No arrests were made on the Phoenix campus for drug law violations.

"The most common drug-related crime at ASU is marijuana use," ASU
police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina says in an e-mail. Most drug
arrests on campus are for possession of marijuana, and usually are a
result of students smoking marijuana in residence halls, he says.

There is a zero-tolerance policy for drugs on campus, and students
receive the same penalties for drug-related crimes from ASU police as
they would from Tempe police, Hardina says.

Detective Parker Dunwoody of ASU police is part of a continuing
partnership between ASU and Tempe police, and drug-related crimes are
his primary responsibility. Currently, he is on assignment with the
Tempe Police Department Special Investigations Bureau.

Dunwoody investigates ASU-related drug cases, he says in an e-mail.
During his five years at ASU he has "seen them all," including
heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine, he says.

ASU has undercover officers to deter drug-related crimes, but the
best method for stopping drug use is educating the public on the
dangers of drugs, Dunwoody says.

"Some students coming from other states and countries with more
lenient drug laws aren't aware that all controlled substances...are
felonies in Arizona," Dunwoody says.

Drug laws deterring dealers

Eric*, an ASU upperclassman, says Arizona's drug laws caused him to
stop dealing when he moved to the state.

"I wouldn't do it in Arizona because it's not worth it," Eric says.
"A seed is a felony in this [state]," he says.

He says he smokes marijuana regularly but hasn't sold any since a
six-month stint in jail last year. He says he stopped dealing when he
moved to Arizona, partly because of the state's harsh drug laws.

Eventually, his friends started to expect to get marijuana for free,
which cut into his profits. Eric says this was another reason to stop dealing.

"The problem is you don't go into dealing to smoke for free," he
says. "If you start to give freebies to your friends, the turnaround
profit isn't very good."

Eric estimates he sold about 10 pounds when he was dealing, which he
bought for about $8,000. He walked away from selling marijuana with
$1,200 in savings and spent the rest of his profit, he says.

"It doesn't sound like much, but it [was] like having an extra
paycheck," he says.

Alcohol Prohibition revisited

The rationale for keeping drugs illegal is similar to the failed
experiment of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s, says ASU professor
Kyle Longley.

"If your measure is stopping the use of drugs, they've failed,"
Longley says. Longley, a Snell Family Dean's Distinguished Professor
of History, specializes in U.S. Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics.

Longley says the reason why drug use is still common in the U.S. is
similar to the reason why alcohol prohibition failed.

"When you tell people they can't do something, they often respond by
doing it," Longley says. "[Alcohol] prohibition is probably the best
example of the failure of the government to stop the use of an illegal drug."

Alcohol was engrained in American culture, so prohibition of the
substance failed miserably, Longley says. Drugs are not as embedded
in American culture as alcohol is, he adds.

But historically, governments have been ineffective at limiting drug
use, he says. "The illegal drug trade is always going to exist -- it
has for thousands of years," Longley says.

An alternative approach to drug policy

There is a small but vocal group of people who disagree with the drug war.

Former police officer Tony Ryan is part of it. Ryan served for 36
years in the Denver police department, and now lives part-time in Tucson.

He is a decorated veteran of the police force, having received awards
such as the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart for his service. Now,
he is an advocate for the legalization of drugs.

"Maybe a third of the way through my career, I realized that we
should be trying a different approach," Ryan says.

He says laws against drugs have done more damage than drugs ever
will. Ryan says he wants to see illegal drugs legalized and regulated.

"Regulation would include something like we do with tobacco," Ryan
says. "You control the quantity, the purity, who can buy it."

Ryan is on the board of directors for the international organization
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP. The U.S.-based group,
made up of thousands of current and former law enforcement and
justice officials, says the war on drugs has failed in its goals and
worsened the drug problem.

Drug legalization would be "less harmful, less costly, more ethical
and [a] more effective public policy" than current U.S. drug policy,
according to LEAP's Web site.

Ryan, who is also a spokesman for LEAP, says drug laws are
counterproductive and result in increased crime, criminal profits and
user deaths.

Legalizing drugs would force dealers to stop selling and make the
country safer, Ryan says.

"The United States is spending $69 billion a year on the war on
drugs," he says. Drug laws have failed to make the population safer,
or to even have an effect on drug use, Ryan says.

"They haven't slowed it down one iota," he says.

Detective Dunwoody says his personal views on U.S. drug policy don't
impact his job.

"My opinion can't come into play, [but] the fact of the matter is
that there are laws that the public voted on and I was hired to
enforce [the laws]," he says. "If the public doesn't like drug policy
the way it is, they have the power to change that."

However, Dunwoody warns of the dangers of drug use.

"I will tell you that I have seen drugs ruin people's lives, from the
elderly to infants," he says.

Jake says the drug war keeps him in business, and his customers agree.

High demand for drugs and especially their illegality "is how you
make the money," Jake says. "If the laws weren't there, I wouldn't be
making the money."

* SPM changed the names to protect the privacy of these sources