Should the U.S. Continue its War on Drugs?

Legalize and treat

We have lost this so called " war on drugs ". It is time for a new battle strategy.

I believe we should decriminalize ALL drugs and move the regulation of drugs out of the legal system and into the medical system where it belongs.

If we allowed addicts to go to a Dr once a month and get prescriptions for what they need, we would instantly put the drug dealers out of businees by taking the profit away.

We need to assign a new medical code to this particular visit and not allow it to be billed to insurance. This keeps the rest of us from having to fund it. The user would be required to pay cash at the Dr and the pharmacy, but they would pay much less because the drug store would sell it at retail instead of street price.

Crime would immediately be reduced.

Release every NON violent drug offender in the country. The money saved on jail cells, housing and medical costs would be more than enough to pay for quality rehab for anyone that wants it. All the person would have to do is tell the Dr that they were ready to commit to long term rehab and the Dr would facilitate an admission. We could afford to give these folks quality, long term residential treatment . This is far more sucessful than outpatient or short term programs.

This way we could at least know who is using and ensure that they have that regular contact with a source of help. Additionally, a user is not going to sell thier drugs when they know they don't have any more until time to see the Dr and refill the RX.

I don't claim to know that this will work, but I know that what we are doing now has failed miserably. If we want a different result, we have to try something different.

Bootleggers can't make a living selling liquor in a county that has a liquor store because of the price difference. The liqour store is required to check ID and they risk thier entire business if they don't.

As a teenager, I lived in a dry county. I can promise you that I was NEVER carded at the bootleggers. They, like the drug dealers, didn't care that they were selling to someone underage, because they were already breaking the law. Furthermore, they were just like most of the big drug operations in that they had paid of the local sheriff and judge.

The legal system is up to thier eyeballs in drug money and cannot possibly win this war due the corruption at the highest levels.

The definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. Continuing this current battle plan in the war on drugs is INSANE!!