Clearly we are losing the drug war. We've spent over $1 TRILLION on this war since the 70's, and continue to spend about $20 billion per year domestically in this losing cause. The estimated costs of drug abuse to our nation every year is around $300 billion. We spend $25,000 - $50,000 per year per inmate in our prison system. PER INMATE! Our prison population is over 1 million and we are running neck-and-neck with Russia for the dubious distinction of having the highest per capita of our population in prison. Drugs are swelling our prisons with fresh inmates, many of them guilty of possession not dealing. Fighting the problem in the United States has overwhelmed the criminal justice system. What the American Bar Association called "extraordinary" efforts to arrest and prosecute drug offenders have not controlled the drug problem, but have overburdened the police, the courts, the prisons, and the probation system. Three quarters of a million people are arrested each year on drug charges. More than 400,000 Americans are in prison on drug charges, an eightfold increase from the 50,000 incarcerated in 1980. Over the last decade, despite spending more than $25 billion on drug-control programs overseas, more illicit drugs are available in the United States, and at cheaper prices, than ever before. In this country, commerce in illegal drugs is estimated to be a $150 billion-a-year industry. The U.N. estimates illegal drugs account for 10 percent of the world's trade - all tax-free. Much of the $20 billion a year in direct drug war costs have not been added to the budget, but taken out of other programs: immigrant assistance, the Economic Development Administration, public housing subsidies, and juvenile justice. Almost every U.S. official who has thought about the problem at all has concluded that it is impossible to interdict drugs crossing the U.S. border. The U.S. coast line is 90,000 miles long, and 600 vessels, 700 private aircraft, 1,200 commercial flights, 20,000 containers, 25,000 motor vehicles, and 800,000 people enter the country each day. As the Bush administration acknowledged, though without drawing the obvious conclusion: "Every time we disrupt or close a particular trafficking route, we have found that traffickers resort to other smuggling tactics that are even more difficult to detect." So I'm sick of drugs. I'm sick of the costs to society and to our economy. I'm sick of reading about innocent people, often little children, who are murdered by addicts. I'm sick of reading about prison over-crowding as a result of drugs. I'm sick of hearing of friends and occasionally neighbors having their houses broken into by addicts looking for stuff to steal then sell to pay for their habits (A crack addict typically needs $1,000 a week.) I have a close relative whose family has been torn apart by drugs. So what's the solution? There are strident opponents of the current system who argue that we need to stop fighting the war in terms of interdiction and overseas intervention, which clearly aren't working, and instead fight in on the domestic front with more treatment and education. I submit that we can treat and educate all we want, but it will only serve to staunch the wound, not eliminate the bleeding. I propose that enough is enough. Let's make it a capital punishment to deal drugs. If you deal drugs, you die. Simple as that. And it doesn't have to be expensive. Forget the $1 million execution costs for lethal injection. Malaysia keeps things very cheap by hanging their drug dealers. China shoots its dealers in the back of the head with a single bullet - then charges the family for the bullet. I am NOT advocating executing addicts. That's another issue. I'm saying let's go after the bastards who deal the drugs to the addicts. Let's make them pay with their lives. Will it work? Many may say that Malaysia still has a drug problem despite its harsh stance. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't work here. Efforts up till now have obviously been proven futile. So I ask, what do we have to lose other than a few drug dealers who won't peddle their filth anymore?
i agree in principal, i'm tired of seeing tax dollars go down the drain housing damn career criminal SOBs. realisically, obviously, it's not going to happen. maybe corporeal punishment and forced labor? well, even that's too much for the liberal pussies (who never fail to astound me with their abject lack of understanding of how EASY it is to NOT commit crimes)... maybe the best answer would be legalise the shit. at least marajuana. let the fucking moron public have what it so desperately desires (and let's not kid ourselves, the business is totally demand driven). personally, i have no sympathy at all for the the typical fucking moron that starts taking drugs even though he has absolutely no idea of the effect it tends to have on his life (hehe, i know, i was one of them ) or else doesn't care, but if enough of them start doing it -- which is the danger in legalizing it -- it starts being a problem for the rest of us.
I think we should legalize drugs. Tax them just like cigarettes and alchohol. I do not drink or smoke or do drugs. That is my choice. I think this would eliminate a lot of crime. And all the hardcore addicts will kill themselves with abundance. And there will be no crimes to commit. Just a thought
they would just squander the money on something else. they won't get (re)elected if they don't invent new ways to take your money. that's what they like to do and that's what they do best. that's their "job". and that my friends is the sad and hopeless nature of the beast and that will never change.
Execute.......yeah right... hahahahah you funny guy. Anyways, I remember a time when the Government ran drugs for weapons, Guess you should have executed the whole freakin administration back then....... I say you legalize majiruana ( problem solved here...alchohol has caused way more deaths thru dui than majiruana, I dont care what that commercial says ). Then we need to move on to the harder drugs; I can't think of any better place to start then with the demand side ( the question is how to lower demand ).....as long as there is demand causing profit margins to be so lucrative, there will always be dealers.....peace.....
THe problem with drugs is they are illegal. Drugs possession and distribution now illegal, opiates, hallucinagens, cocaine, et. al., should be de-criminalized and distribution controlled. Illegal drug dealing and much the crime associated with it would dissappear. Use some of the saved funds on treatment and prevention. Look at how much nicotine use has decreased in the United States as a % of use among its populace as a result of a concerted education effort. Nicotine is far more addictive than any illegal drug on the street. Addiction rates would probably actually decrease. Shoot the drug dealer. Wow, inventive solution. Does that include your 16 year old nephew who dealt a couple of joints to his freinds?
I submit that the only way to curb demand is FEAR. Nothing else has worked thus far, has it? There would of course be amounts that would be enough to label one a dealer. A couple of joints of marijuana won't be enough. I'm talking about the big fish - the cartel boys overseas down to the distributors in the major cities. I realize this is an extreme measure, and I expected harsh criticism and even disbelief. Having said that, aren't drug dealers as bad as terrorists? They bring death and destruction on an even wider scale than terrorists, and affect all of us on an even wider scale than terrorism via crime and our tax dollars. Chances are your average American citizen won't be directly hit by terrorists, but you are much more likely to be impacted by drugs in some way, be it burglary of your home, an attack on a family member or friend, or relatives and friends (and their children) getting hooked. Drug dealers are murderers, plain and simple. Not only do their actions affect the addict, but the addict's family and friends and society in general. If murder is a capital offense, why shouldn't drug dealing be as well?
so how do you propose we make the addicts fearful?? because demand comes from the user side not the pusher side......besides telling a crack addict to stop doing crack is like telling a manic deprresive to be happy.. ...