Should we end the war on drugs?

@filmbuff (2909)
United States
April 17, 2007 4:30am CST
Since Nixon declared "war" on drugs, billions of dollars and resources have gone out to fight drug trafficing. The reality of the situation is that little to no progress has been made, and the drug dealers and terrorists are still making money from contraban despite our best efforts-- all the while illicit drug use is going up and more and more people continue to use drugs. I want to state here publically that I do not use drugs, and rarely drink alcohol. However it is my position that if we were to end this war on drugs that (face it) we have lost, we could do far more damage to terrorist funding and begin repairing the lives of those who are abusers by legalizing drugs. Street drugs are very expensive and very dangerous because there is no government mandateing their saftey or potency levels. Gangs and terrorist organization benefit from "supply and demand" by charging a high price for the narcotics because the penalties for being caught with said drugs carry stiff penalties. If however, drugs were legalized the price would go down, the safety and regulation of them would go up and it would put the drug dealers out of business; as well as cutting off that funding from terrorists who are importing the drugs from afganistan and other countries. If they were legal, they could be taxed and would become an additional source of income for the government much like alchohol has. Instead of billions of dollars pouring out, millions would be pouring in which could be used to help treat those who are addicted. I would guess that crime in general would go down, because you wouldn't have users who have lie, cheat, steal, and commit violent acts to fund their habit as drugs would be cheap in comparison to what they are now. Granted there are social implications of drugs being availble to everyone and use and abuse would probably go up. But if that new windfall of money (and it would be huge) was spent to treat and inform, I think in the long run the benefits would far outweigh the risk. What do you think?
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