The War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism
Do you remember when the war on drugs was declared in this country? (Well it was about 40 years ago). Let me ask you another question. How do you think things are going in this “declared war”, do you think we are winning the war on drugs?
Don’t you think that after 40 some odd years, we could unequivocally say that “the war has been won” or at the very least “the situation on the drug scene sure is a lot better than it was 40 years ago”. Let’s take an inventory of this (well-meaning war) and what some of the costs have been.
- The amount of public money poured into the war cannot be counted.
- The amount of time and money that law enforcement, lawyers and our courts have poured into this war cannot begin to be fathomed. (Makes you wonder what they could have been accomplishing if their time had been diverted to some other activity).
- What about the “drug abusers” that have been incarcerated and the costs that have hit their families and shattered their lives? By the way approximately 70% to 80% have not committed a violent crime.
- How about the lost employment opportunities once the so called “criminal” has paid for his crimes? (Creating the revolving prison door)
- Medical costs associated with this issue are astronomical.
- The people left at home alone after the “offender” goes off to prison usually winds up on the public dole in one way or another.
- How many children have been (placed) in protective child services or other ward of the state programs?
- How many of our rights and freedoms have been compromised or completely taken away in this war effort?
For more information and statistics please follow this link: www.nyam.org/initiatives/docs/Cost_Effectiveness.pdf
Please don’t misunderstand….I’m not in favor of all drugs being legal. I just think it is time to ask ourselves as a society “has this strategy worked”? Any thinking person would have to conclude that it has not worked. As a matter of fact, in my opinion “it has failed and failed miserably”.
I predict that the “war on terror” will wind up the same way as “the war on drugs”. There will never be a declaration stating that the war has been won. Forty years from now we will lift our heads from the foxholes and ask, “have we won yet”?
There may be a few different nuances that are a bit different than the war on drugs; but the result will be the same, “it has failed and failed miserably”.
Again I don’t want to be misunderstood….I’m not in favor of all the radicals in this world to gallivant around the globe blowing up whatever and whoever they want. But let’s ask the question now rather than 40 years from now, “is this strategy working”?
“So Let It Be Done”
Punkaloo
