It's been over 40 years since Tricky Dick Nixon declared a war on drugs, and it's still unclear who is winning.
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the federal government spent over $15 billion last year on drug control policies, and State Governments have spent at least another $25 billion, according to the Cato Institute.
With all that money spent, you would expect some results. The White House website claims that since the War on Drugs began the use of illicit drugs has decreased by a third. Obama has set a goal to decrease that rate by another 15 percent by 2015.
This all comes with a human price as well. The rate of incarceration in the United States has risen sharply since the War on Drugs began, up from roughly 93 people in 100,000 incarcerated in the early '70's to roughly 500 people in 100,000 in 2006.
Over 1.6 million people were arrested for drug violations in 2009, and roughly half of them were for cannabis violations. This has direct correlation to the incarceration rates, as 24 percent of state inmates and 55 percent of federal inmates were drug violators in 2004. According to data from the International Centre for Prison Studies, all those numbers add up to a startling truth.
The United States is the world's leader in prison population, beating out Russia for the top spot.
We have to ask ourselves if all this is worth it.
Mostly, yes. We are not for limiting personal freedom, but there is a line to be drawn. There is a massive difference between smoking a joint and snorting cocaine, shooting heroin, and smoking meth. Studies have shown the powerful addictive properties that hard drugs possess, and the damage they cause to addicts and their families is truly horrifying.
Prohibiting something will not stop everyone from doing it. Laws against murder will never make murder go away, but they do serve as a deterrent. The same applies to hard drugs. Obviously, nothing will ever completely stop people from using them, but banning them greatly decreases the amount that is available.
The problem comes when people are sent to prison for being users and addicts. Punishments should be more tailored to getting them help for addiction rather than just sending them to prison. The real target should be high-level dealers and distributors that spread the drugs around the country.
The government is also focusing on cannabis in the entirely wrong way. It's a ridiculous sham for it to even be illegal, let alone a crime that you could go to prison for in any situation. The negative effects of marijuana are on par or milder than those of alcohol, and they should be treated equally in the law.
No candidate in the fray for the presidency has this sentiment, including President Obama. Most agree with the current policies in place, including the overly harsh cannabis rules, except for Ron Paul who disagrees with the war on drugs entirely.
We should demand a more complex view on drugs from our representatives in Washington. Without it, we are destined to watch our prisons fill and our wallets drain.
