The United States has been in its War on Drugs for quite a few years and it seems that there is nothing that we can do to stop it. I will have to concede and say that there is nothing that we can do to stop it completely but I do believe that we can slow it down with intense sustained effort.
The United States, as well as other participating countries, declared war on the illegal drug industry by passing an initiative to combat the illegal drug trade that threatens modern day society. This never ending war was initiated by President Nixon in 1969. Soon later in 1973 the Drug Enforcement Administration was created as a government branch dedicated to fighting this illegal industry. It is commonly known as the DEA. The DEA has put a major dent in the flow of illegal drugs into and out of the United States but the flow continues. Drug cartels have become more and more ruthless about the way that they conduct business. They dont mind murdering government or law enforcement officials to get what they want. The money to be made from the drug trade is very good and money talks. If not for the establishment of the DEA and the effort that our government has put forth I dont know where we would be it terms of fighting this problem.
In 2005 alone, the United States spent more than $45 billion of tax payer's money on this war incarcerating and rehabilitating drug users and fighting the illegal flow of drugs into the United States. Not only is the spending completely out of control, but illegal drug use has continued to substantially increase every year since prohibition. More than one fifth of our youth use what the United States government considers to be illegal drugs. The drug business is lucrative to large drug dealers and the smaller dealers who work the streets of our inner cities. There is an almost innumerable number of small time dealers in America and it is next to impossible to incarcerate them all.
Some say that the legalization of marijuana will help in eradicating much of the drug problem which is true to a degree. If we legalize this drug we will save money because we wont have to enforce the laws governing its use but Im not quite so sure that this would help us otherwise. I dont know what the ramifications of marijuana use are and I wont attempt to debate them in this article, but I do know that if our government legalized this drug and sold it over the counter it would result in a whole lot of gained revenue. The over the counter sale would probably put the marijuana dealers out of business but there are many other types of drugs that they could begin to sell in its place.
I believe that it would be prudent to use the military to assist us in sealing off our southern border with Mexico. This would be costly but it is probably the best solution. We would make the money back that we spend with dividends but it would take a number of years before we would begin to see a return.
As long as there are drug users in the world there will be drug dealers. There will always be customers to use the drugs and the harder we make it to smuggle drugs into the United States the more they will cost.
We have won the war on terror but the war against illegal drugs is a different story. This war is not winnable in that we will never completely eradicate illegal drug use or trafficking. We need to take every possible action to slow it down which I believe is possible.
Military Ring Express
