what do you think about the war on drugs?
471899
i personally don't think they do enough to keep drugs off the streets. like where I'm from there are young kids as in 12 and13 yr old that walk the street selling drugs their parents even OK it. i think that our police force sucks and are scared to go into "the hood " and do anything about it. sometimes i feel that they just let most of the big dealers get away with it to keep money into the community. i may be way off base but there is something fishy going on. you get the same offenders out on the street all the time. then lets say they catch some small dealer and tell them hey if you narky on the one higher up you can go free and it wont show up on your record, well of course that's what they are gonna do. then that person will probably be the one to step up and become the big guy. they really need to sit and figure out new ways to get these people off the streets. it is killing our kids, and kids parents. i wish there was something i could do to help. good luck, and GOD BLESS YOU!!!!!!!1
653209
And the real question is why dont US forces bother to stop it.A. because they are in the pay of the locals B. they dont care anyway C.Alot of the U S forces are using the stuff anyway;after all it is a pain killer and if your chasing a non existent enemy all around the place it is very nerve racking(parralels with Vietnam there as well as the probibility that they cant win).D the US government couldnt care less about drugs control,A,B,C or D which would you pick or maybe I missed an alphabet of answers
973486
We aren't honest about the problem.  For the most part, this is a national security issue having to do with mexico.  Quite literally, mexico has created a black market industry that rivals oil exportation as its main source of revenue.  This has horrible consequences for both us and mexico.  Drugs have a direct effect on our population but the money sent back to mexico creates a situation where the most heinously evil people have tons of power.  We are seeing the result right now as the mexican government is only a few short steps from being overthrown and being replaced with a communist/totalitarian government fueled by drug money.  Mexico has become the type of place where you are out dancing at a club, minding your own business when all of a sudden a group of gunmen burst in and toss a bunch of severed heads on the stage as a warning to people.\n\nSolving this is quite direct.  Shut down the border and seal it tight.  The methamphetamines issue is even simpler to solve.  Get rid of certain OTC cold medications and it becomes very difficult to manufacture them.
811897
The current drug laws really don't make sense and your idea has merit. There are always going to be drug users. Decrimiinalization will not make more drug users. It will reduce petty crime and strike a serious blow to organized crime.\n\nUnfortunately, it would also make tens of thousands of government employees useless. They would have nothing to do and their bosses would lose their little empires. We can't have that, now can we? After all, it's only taxpayer funds they are wasting on a lost cause.
641240
The real reason for the drug war is because politically it sounds good.  Families can be devistated when family members are hurt or killed because of the drug trade, or by the loss of family members to addiction - Those families vote and so politicians saw an opportunity to garner votes without thinking it through.\n\nWe can NEVER win the war on drugs, but it is NOT exactly like prohibition, the cost on society if all drugs were legalized would be HUGE for rehab etc.\n\nUnfortunately, even without a chance at winning AND the fact it was a political move to get votes, I still think it is something that should still be fought.
1123715
Everything but the drugs (I hope) may be true, but the military doesn't start wars in the middle of our streets, they save it for poor unfortunate other countries.  And they don't fight over drug selling territories (something illegal), they fight over oil rights (something mostly legal).\n\nOtherwise, you make an interesting point.  Make sure you vote out the thugs in office next november (another difference, since we don't get a vote in who runs the gangs)!
438775
I personally think that we should be looking at Mexico and the other central american states very closly and hard.  Some of the things they are doing there can be taken as terroristic.  They Mexican Army escorts the drug traders accross the borders.  They out man and outgun the local authorities.  To me, they are declaring war on the USA.. Again, we are ignoring it.  Almost like we have Al Quida.
218397
When we legalize them and make them available to everyone at cheap prices, just like coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. The only reason they are a problem now is that they are illegal, driving the prices to astronomical heights, precipitating horrendous street crime, and making criminals rich. If we legalized them, regulated them, taxed them and used the tax revenues to build treatment centers and fund education programs, we would begin to deal with the problem from a realistic perspective instead of the spastic knee-jerk reaction we currently misidentify as a "War on Drugs".
293532
Most definitely.  We would earn taxes and save billions in drug enforcement.  And it would get any worse.  \n\nLook at the example of Prohibition.  It never worked except to build up the mafia
861204
THANKS DEREK,\n         FOR THE WEB SITE, AS WE ALL KNOW THE F.D.A. AND A.M.A. DON'T WANT TO TREAT PEOPLE WITH NATURAL\nMEDICINE AS IT WILL PUT A DENT ON THE BIG BUSINESS THEY ARE ALREADY GENERATING THROUGH THE PHARMACY INDUSTRIES!!!  SYNTHETIC DRUGS ARE KILLING\nOUR NATION!!! IT'S UP TO THE PEOPLE TO WAKE UP AND REALLY VOICE THEIR OPINION CONCERNING THIS SERIOUS MATTER!!! DRUGS IS "BIG BUCKS" LEGAL AND ILLEGAL!!!
417650
Yes.  That way we could use the police for more preventative measures.  We could get rid of the drug dealers.  We could regulate the substance - people would get what they paid for - no sugar, flour, Comet, Drano, etc - and the O.D.s would practically disappear.  We could tax it and help remove the national multitrillion dollar debt. \nI don't use drugs, but I don't think it's the government's right to tell me that I can't.  I am a functioning tax paying adult. The government is not my parent.
1148721
to tax on it of course. The government should just make drugs legal (not all but some). Cuz we all know that when something is made illegal it's wanted more!!! If the government makes it legal that would put drug dealers out of business and they can tax on it. Also if it is available maybe it wont be wanted as much!!
126322
I think it should be decriminalized.  Marijuana is so much safer than alcohol and tobacco!  And I've never seen a violent pothead!  Think of how much revenue would be generated if it were legalized, and taxed!  Not to mention the savings.  Prisons would be less populated, police could spend more time on things that REALLY matter (you know, murder, other "hardcore" drugs).  I have always been for the legalization of marijuana.  But a lot of jobs may be lost as well (law enforcement).  The "war on drugs" is a big business, and we're just little pee-ons, so what we think doesn't matter anyway.
801887
That is exactly what it is; they use scare tactics.  I do not belive in hard drugs such as coke/crack or any other.  But I do belive in freedoom.  If somone whats to kill themselves over such a drug as coke I propbably don't want to talk to that person or want that person using up the valuable resources on this planet a anyway because that drug makes you stupid.  But if they do the drug and don't affect me in anyway, then it really doesn't matter does it.  As the offspring would say It is not a war on drugs it is a war on personal freedom.  Besides if they legalized everything do you have any idea how much money the government could make, look at holland.  They have free health care to all,  If you want to go to school to be a brain surgeon for ten years they will pay for the whole thing, Lastly they are one of the greenest countries in the world relying soley on wind,solar,and water energy which is not cheap but saves the tax payers trillions.  There is a correct way and a wrong way to regulate drugs.  Holland makes money off of it and all the people benifit.  While america throws everyone in jail all the way down to the peace loving hippies and it costs all the tax payers so much more.  We would not have an eight trillion dollar national defict if our government officals would just think.  Do you know George washington our first president grew hundreds of acres of weed for use of the hemp for rope on sailing ships and many other uses; our government would have locked up the founding father of this country and threw away the key.  I can keep going too.
462428
in response to some of the replies, a quest for knowledge in NO way implicitly suggests a person is using drugs or even knows anybody doing so. if a man asks a woman how anal sex feels, does that make him homosexual?\nthe u.s. is scared stupid because of the drug war and all its useless damage. people should be encouraged to educate themselves about anything, including sex, drugs, and rock and roll :P\nfree communication is the cornerstone of a successful democracy.
1113977
I think drugs r wrong.  no one shuld do them.  the more people use drugs the more our world is goin straight down the drain.  i dont kno about any one else but i would definately not ever do drugs and i wuld nevr hang out wit people who do drugs b-cuz they r jus goin to drag me and others down in life.  i and many others want a good future and drugs promise nothing but prison, HELL, and death!\nDRUGS R TOTALLY WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
317261
If the government can figure a way to tax marijuana, they will legalize it, charge about $10 bucks a joint, so High School students can use their lunch money to get high and stop shootings in their schools, beating up fags, and raping girls; cause then it would be a "don't worry, be happy attitude", and nobody would feel hate, just love and peace.\nI vote YES, what the heck, give it a try, see if things don't improve in our country. Dealers would be out of a job, so they wouldn't be to happy. I say we legalize all illegal drugs, put all the DRUG LORDS out of business, cut down on crime; People only want what they can't have, if it were not illegal, the urgency would dissipate.