FIGHTING TO WIN IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

Step No. 1 In The New Battle Plan: Legalize Marijuana, Tax Sales

While Congress, the president, Liberals, Conservatives, and the media
are arguing about the War on Terror, they're neglecting another war
that has been raging since the Nixon administration, America's War on Drugs.

We're not losing the fight against drugs, nor are we winning.
Instead, we're sitting in a 21st century trench warfare in drug
policy. The drug war needs revitalization, a strong commitment to
success and new, unconventional ideas to achieve a long overdue victory.

Starting off, America should legalize marijuana. I know, I know. I'm
a right wing, gun-toting, anti-abortion, racist, woman hatin'
ultra-conservative, what am I doing endorsing the legalization of an
illicit drug?

Quite frankly, it makes perfect sense, and you can't win the War on
Drugs without first decriminalizing marijuana possession in America.
Now, don't get me wrong - I don't smoke marijuana, never have and
never will. I think it's wrong, but that shouldn't keep Joe somebody
who sits next to me in history from doing so, especially when it's so
economically advantageous for the United States.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated
96.7 million Americans (40.2 percent) have tried marijuana; an
estimated 25.4 million (10.6 percent of the population) smoked
marijuana last year alone. If there's one area of which the United
States government is an expert, it's taxation. Let's suppose that all
25.4 million of those people smoked an average of five grams of
marijuana throughout the year.

If we estimate each gram of marijuana costs $20, of which the
government enforced a 25 percent per gram tax, the U.S. government
would have received an additional $635 million in revenue last year.

Legalization would not only increase the U.S. pocketbook, but save
money as well. Last year, there were 1.7 million drug-related arrests
in America. Of that 1.7 million, 771,605 were marijuana-related and
684,319 of those were for possession.

Enforcement of laws prohibiting marijuana cost American taxpayers an
estimated $4 billion in 2004. Yet, frequently conducted studies from
numerous sources indicate that marijuana is nowhere near as dangerous
to health or property as tobacco, alcohol or "hard" drugs.

Tobacco, alcohol, hard drugs and anti-inflammatory medication such as
Aspirin directly accounted for a half-million American deaths last
year. Direct deaths from marijuana totaled zero. In fact, the average
marijuana user would have to consume 5,000 times the normal amount to
die directly from its use.

Marijuana also is less addictive than caffeine (interesting side
note: Nicotine is more addictive than heroin, cocaine and alcohol).
Legalization would have to come at a cost, however.

Entry of marijuana into the United States and its production in
America would need strict regulation to ensure consumer safety. So
count out maybe $1 billion of our generated surplus, and we still
would have $3 billion left over to continue to fight the truly evil drugs.

The additional $3 billion generated could be used instead to combat
the remaining hard drugs, which do have pronounced physical and
social effects on Americans. Prosecution simply is not enough
anymore. I wish our citizens were smart enough to know that drugs are
not healthy, and imprisonment is an effective deterrent to drug use,
yet, neither of those are true.

That's why treatment also must play a key role in eliminating drugs
in America. A simple solution I've heard for a while now is for every
dollar spent on drug enforcement the government should spend a dollar
on treatment and prevention programs. Most of you reading this went
though D.A.R.E. during elementary school. D.A.R.E. is an outstanding
program that demonstrates to children the dangers of drug use.

These types of programs should be extended in our schools and at
home. More money cannot be the only answer. Simply throwing more
money at a problem doesn't make it go away. Parental involvement is
needed to help curb drug use. Parents should be involved in their
children's drug education and if they chose not to, should be held accountable.

It would take a decade or two, but once you've inoculated a whole
generation against drug use, you really can begin to stamp out drugs
in America.

While you continue various programs in America, work has to be done
abroad to curb the amount of drugs available in the United States.
Currently, cartel leaders essentially control Central and South
American countries through money. They pay off political leaders, the
military and even local citizens to ensure their autonomy and safety.

You see, fighting drugs is much different from fighting terrorism and
radical Islam.

Radical fundamentalists appeal to a shared ideology, drug cartels
appeal to people's wallets. That's how we can appeal to those
citizens. If money can buy their support, then it's our place to out bid them.

Drugs can be fought in much the same way as the Cold War, by
outspending those who sell them. Cartel leaders are essentially
businessmen. Their tactics are harsher than your typical Fortune-500
CEO, yet, at the end of the day, their goal is the same, to make a buck.

With the economic resources of the United States government, we can
make cocaine and heroin production unprofitable. Political pressure
and economic sanctions can be put on countries that allow cartels free reign.

The United States has the clout, the economic power and the will to
win. It'll take time, effort, money and forward thinking by
Americans, but it's not that hard.

Legalize marijuana, start education against drug use earlier and use
the power of the dollar to destroy drugs at their source. Thirty
years is much too long to still be dealing with this problem. It's
time to end it, now.