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The DEA’s recent investigation of a Midwestern methampetamine drug operation uncovered a connection with terrorism. This should come as no surprise. In a single night’s work in a makeshift lab, one person can make $2.5 million worth of methampetamine. The money can then be funneled to other criminal organizations. And this is easy money: The U.S. has an insatiable appetite for drugs of all kinds, both legal and illegal. In fact, in California the profits from marijuana alone exceeds the GDP of many nations.
Some say that our current War on Drugs can be won by “getting tough” and appropriating enough funding. In 1969 we spent $66 million. Under President Nixon’s “get tough” program, that number increased more than tenfold to $796 million. In 2000 the federal budget for the War on Drugs was a staggering $19.2 billion. During the last 15 years we have spent over $300 billion, more than three times the cost to put a man on the moon. What do we have to show for this expenditure?
Our legislators in Congress know good politics, but not good policy. In 1988 they issued this proclamation: “It is the declared policy of the United States to create a Drug-Free America by 1995.” They followed that action by requesting yet more taxpayer money.
1995 has come and gone. Where is the “Drug-Free” America for which we’ve been taxed? Congress has already spent billions and it still wants more. We will not be drug-free in 2007 (12 years beyond their self-proclaimed deadline) or any other year. As we should have learned during Prohibition, you cannot legislate away the law of supply and demand.
The solution is simple: re-legalize and regulate all illegal drugs. It is much easier to control, regulate and police a legal market than an illegal one. Budweiser and Coors executives don’t get into gunplay over territorial disputes nor are the profits diverted to terrorism. Valium labs are not popping up in neighborhoods. Why? These dangerous, mind-altering and sometimes addictive drugs are legal and regulated.
It’s time to just say no to the War on Drugs.
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