End the War on Drugs

Ok, so this is kind of a broad subject, but let me see if I can keep my point self-evident. Drugs is one of those tricky subjects that people always seem to have an opinion on, but I am sick and tired of hearing people, who obviously don't know half as much about history as they claim, insisting that our forefathers (e.g. George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson) would support the war on drugs that the US is currently waging. The reality is that since most of them WERE drug users of one type of another (mostly marijuana and tobacco, though there is plenty of evidence for occasional use of more hard-core drugs such as cocaine and opium, both of which were commonly used in medical practices at the time), they would be most likely to, at most, support laws on regulating manufacture so that it would be safer.

In my opinion, it is past time to abandon the war on drugs. It is costing a fortune that our country should be using for other things such as improving our infrastructure and reducing the national debt. By continuing the war we are not only wasting money, but we also encourage the drug cartels to continue the way that they have by making the whole thing more profitable, since they are able to charge more for it because it's illegal. This ability to charge more not only increases the income of the drug traffickers, but also encourages others to get involved in order to get a share of the profits.

There is a lot of talk right now in the Americas as a whole about fighting the drug cartels. Mexico, and many south and central American countries are trying to band together to fight the drug lords and their hordes and yet almost all of them freely admit that due to the resources that the drug cartels have at their disposal and the continued income they receive from sales (mostly from the US of course) the governments are fighting a losing battle. Continuing to fight the War on Drugs is only fueling the fire.

My proposal is simple: decriminalize and regulate. If the US was to decriminalize and regulate drugs such as cocaine, opium, meth, and weed, it would be first become much safer to manufacture and consume. Then you would start to see more domestic production, which would reduce dependence on foreign product, increase availability for sale here and bring down prices something fierce. This would in turn cause foreign drug cartels to lose money and power allowing the governments to again regain the upper hand in their countries.

Now this of course is where all the "oh, my gods! Please think of the children!" idiots start up. The same attitude driving these people also ran the movement that outlawed alcohol in prohibition, and we all know how well that worked. When will you learn that outlawing stuff like this only causes more problems, not less. You aren't saving the children- you are encouraging them by making drugs more attractive due to natural human rebellious tendencies and endangering them even more by making acquiring and using drugs more dangerous than it has to be. Take your own advice- THINK OF THE CHILDREN THAT YOU ARE KILLING!