Illegal drug consumption in the United States has remained consistent for many years according to government reports. Chronic users of Cocaine were over 3 million people in 1994 and had dropped to 2.7 million in 2000. The number of occasional users had increased from 2.9 million to 3 million people in that same period. Similarly the number of Marijuana users was 11.6 million in 1998 and had grown to 12.1 million users in 2000.
The conclusion that I make from this White House report is that we have a consistent non-growing group of Americans who are determined to keep using drugs no matter what the cost in dollars, relationships, or jail time.
The similarities to America’s fight against alcohol usage are overwhelmingly obvious. Gangs were promoted by our banning of alcohol and today gangs are promoted by the ban of drug use.
As George Will pointed out in his February 23 Newsweek column, “Banning Sunday liquor sales pleases Baptists – and also pleases bootleggers by increasing demand for their services.”
Most of us will agree that the use of tobacco and alcohol is damaging to our lives but we do not ban either of those substances. Instead our state and federal governments apply substantial taxes to both products but not enough to stop the revenue stream.
Many people will say we must not allow the use of Marijuana and Cocaine because it addles the brain and those effected will harm the rest of us when driving a car or operating machinery. Those people are charged and convicted under DUI laws. Many lives have been lost by the actions intoxicated people. Obviously our laws have not deterred the users.
We are not solving the problem of Marijuana and Cocaine addiction. The statistics support that fact. We are now losing lives in the United States as the result of the drug smuggling. Reports of slaying far from the Mexican border are becoming common place events.
The solution is simple and it will put an end to the cartels that are becoming an international problem. We must legalize the use of all the currently illegal drugs. Instead we should apply taxes on the sale of those currently outlawed drugs. The benefits to this plan are obvious. We reduce the impact of gangs in our cities, drug smugglers are put out of business, our government has a new source of revenue, and the killing is stopped.
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