When the drug war ends (salaries, Mexican, illegal, drugs)

[LargeKingCat]

SO sooner or later, hopefully sooner, the United States will have to admit that the Nixon era drug war which has been waged unsuccessfully for decades now and failed year after rhetorical year is over, an the nation has failed.

Years ago, Portugal tried a radical new approach to deal with the number of addicts. They legalized drugs.
Ten years after, drug use and addiction is well under half of where it was when the process started. And based on continuing developments and advances in mental health treatment, that number should steadily decline.

Funding for the drug war in Portugal no longer goes to police salaries and prison budgets. It goes instead to teachers, counselors, psychologists and mental health workers. The result is fewer addicts because fewer people have the disease of addiciton.

Part of this too lies in education, in a system that now exists to prevent addiction by teaching students to fulfill their lives without addicitons...something already lacking in American society.

First though, the Governement, the FDA, the DEA all need to come out and admit that their efforts are not working. In spite of what they claim, drug use is not declining, even if the rate of vioence from Narco terrorists and drug users clearly is. Even ifthe street price of illegal drugs is rising, use is too. The best way to curb this is to get people who are likely to use this, the addictive personality types, help and treatment with their addictions, something which is, along with psychology treatment in general, lacking in this nation.

Money saved can go to counter-terrorism, as well as education and treatment. The problem CAN be solved, but first we have to put away the current ineffective system and relace it with a newer 21st century model.

And for the record, in case it matters, I do not use drugs. I do not NEED drugs. My kids are not raised with addictive personalities or with a need for instant gratification which is so rampant in our post-narcissictic society.

As for the drug problem, this "war" has been fought the wrong way for too long. It is time for the underlying problems to be addressed and solved, and not by throwing life and more money into a losing situation. This model can work, but it will need change, something that scares too many people.

[TrapperJohn]

Look closely at who REALLY pushes the War on Drugs. Dig deep. Follow the money. Who benefits? Public unions. Police. Prisons. Jails.

Now why would those people worry about cutting out half their business?

[lowrimol]

When the Drug War ends, another War will begin. Wonder what it will be against?

[malamute]

There has been no drug war. In fact Obama and Holder were supplying the Mexican cartels their high powered weapons and keeping the border wide open for them. That is certainly no kind of war.