Drug use in many different forms dates far back. Used for medication or recreation, humyns have used drugs since the beginning of time. It is said that drugs often play some sort of role in many wars: "The production of opiates is connected to the wars and instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Burma. Cocaine is produced in the Andean countries of South America, particularly Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, and all three have suffered from ongoing civil wars- Colombia's is almost forty years old- and social unrest. Then there are the transit countries, like most of Central America. You add it up and a lot of countries are involved. Of course, one country is most involved, not as an exporter, but the consumer- the United States" (Tirman, 111). About 300 million metric tons of cocaine are consumed by Americans annually. A recorded amount of 1300 metric tons of marijuana is consumed yearly, and heroin use is at 15 tons. It is obvious to see that our "War on Drugs" has not achieved much. The government's futile attempts to prevent drug usage costs citizens about $50 billion a year. Statistics show that the amount of people killed by all illegal drugs in a year is about one percent of the number of people killed by alcohol and tobacco.



To put one drug dealer in jail, it is an estimated $450,000. One alternative to wasting money on the War on Drugs is to legalize drugs, and instead use that money to provide further education about drugs and offer cheap drug rehabilitation classes to those who cannot provide the money to get the help they need. It seems that all the broken laws and squandered money has only led us to prison cells full of people who believe it is their right to do whatever they want to their own bodies.











This is only a short summary of collected information. To find out more, read this book and check out these and other sites.



Sources:

100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World by John Tirman

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/



Written by Dani Davis