Yesterday's headline on an Associated Press story read: "Mexico: 28,000 killed in drug violence since 2006." A staggering number but delve even deeper and we find the numbers in our own country are frightening.
According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, a federally funded resource of the Department of Justice and Executive Office of the President, an estimated 12.8 million Americans, aged 12 and older use illegal drugs on a current basis. I spent a fair amount of time trying to track down a credible number regarding the numbers of deaths as a result of drug use only to discover there appears to be no one reputable source that compiles such statistics. Although research does indicate the numbers of in the tens of thousands.
As far as money spent, so far this year, the combined federal and state expenditures in the war against drugs exceeds $30 billion.
One Federal Bureau of Investigation report, released last September, stated a drug arrest is made every 18 seconds in America.
We have our military involved in intercepting the flow of illegal drugs into our nation. Our men and women in uniform are working in several foreign countries, at the request of those governments, to help eradicate and stem the flow of illegal drugs.
What is the answer? How do we win this seemingly endless war? I wish I had an answer.
The money derived from illegal drugs exceeds many nations annual budgets. That money doesn't come from the bedraggled soul you see on the streets feeding his or her habit. Many Americans believe that drug abuse is not their problem. They have misconceptions that drug users belong to a segment of society different from their own or that drug abuse is remote from their environment. They are wrong. Almost three quarters of drug users are employed and approximately 45 percent of Americans know someone with a substance abuse problem.
The violent deaths in Mexico and other countries south of our border are directly related to drug use in the United States. The simple fact is if there were no demand for the product there would be no battle for the money it generates.
Our prisons are overcrowded, our law enforcement personnel are overwhelmed, our money is poured into a seemingly black hole. Maybe an idea from centuries ago would help solve the problem. The United States owns, and controls, several sparsely populated islands. Remember the infamous penal colonies of the French and English (Can you say Australia or Devil's Island?). Majority of these are in the south pacific, let's send the drug dealers and the consumers who are arrested and convicted to an island paradise where they're on their own. Sink or swim ... the survival of the fittest. The only expense we would have is that of transporting them. Perhaps the fear of what lay ahead would be a greater deterrent than anything we have tried so far.
Ah! But the scream of Civil Rights would be heard on the moon from various groups. In this one person's view, civil rights be damned until those who contribute this massive problem become civil themselves and quit poisoning our society.
No comments:
Post a Comment