Has The US War On Drugs Been Lost?

[dgridley]

I spotted this statement in a Canadian article on illegal drugs:

The street gang and associated drug trade problem in Canada won't be solved by a get-tough, criminal-justice-system response, nor should we expect young homies to just say no. Look to the United States for proof of this. Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has employed the most aggressive and expensive anti-drug and -gang measures ever conceived. In the process, 800,000 street gangsters under the age of 21 have been created. ​

article: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/....html?id=f0795d8f-0a28-469e-bbf5-e37538610951

What are your views? Do you think the War on Drugs has been lost? Is it a war that should ever have been fought? How do you think it compares with Prohibition, if at all?

Do you think legalizing and regulating drug use will have a positive effect by contrast to the situation that exists today?

 

[The Equivocate]

I'll try and make this as short as possible since I could go on for pages about drug legalization..

Basically, legalizing marijuana probably has a lot more positive effects than negative. Just think of all the money wasted by the government in anti-drug campaigns, police arresting those who are in possession, sending them through the court system, drug busts, etc. Then think of the money the gov't can earn through taxation when it's sold legally.

I wont go on a search for them but there are all kinds of medical documents out there showing marijuana to be much safer than cigarettes as far as toxins and cancer goes.

But then of course there's the problem of people driving while under the influence of marijuana and as far as I know there's no quick way to test for the amount of intoxication like there is for alcohol (breathalizer)...

And you'll never keep people from doing cocaine/crack/heroin, etc, and I think the negatives of these "harder" drugs far outweigh the positives in legalizing them.

Probably didnt sound too convincing because I'm trying to keep it short, but that's my gist of it.

 

[{insert name here}]

War on Drugs:
Wealthy people who take prescription drugs, trying to stop poor people from taking non-prescription drugs.