The Daily Campus

If someone has decided to do heroin don't you think that they will do the drug whether it is legal or not? And how easy is it right now to get basically any drug that you can think of. I know I could personally find any drug I wanted short of crystal meth in about a day. I'm not exactly proud of this fact but thats a whole different argument. The issue with the drug war is that it needs to be looked at from a realistic sense and evaluated based on results, and the fact of the matter is that drug use has risen ever since the programs inception. With this being the case, it means we are spending millions of dollars a year on a war that we are losing- sound familiar? Now comparing this to the Iraq war is a bit extreme but in a sense the arguments against it are similar. Why should tax dollars be spent on something that appears futile. Why not legalize drugs and then tax them turning them into a government profit. Additionally, the war on drugs creates a whole undercurrent of violence because the actual trade of these drugs is controlled by gangs and mafioso. This is the actual drug war. The many killings carried out because of turf disputes and drug debts. And frankly there are a thousand more aspects to this issue and truthfully each side has a very valid argument. It boils down to is the question, "Does the Government have the right to tell you what to do with your body?" Its slightly akin to the abortion debate, albeit on a much different scale. I'll stop here before I write an article as a comment

Caffeine is a mind altering, addictive and potentially
lethal drug (65 cups of coffee in a single day the
consumer has a 50 percent chance of dying as a result).

Yet, how much crime and violence do we have because of
caffeine? None.

Why? It's legal.

"However, it is hard to see how there could be any sensible way of dealing with drug users other than punishing them as criminals."

how about dealing with drug abuse as the health issue it is? Next time you are injured or ill, you should go to a cop or judge for their "medical" advice.

Megan,
If you were walking alone at night, and a group of strange young men approached you, would you feel safer knowing they had just come from:
a.) Their apartment, where they'd been smoking weed and ordering Domino's Pizza.
b.) A frat party, where they'd taken enough shots to get moderately drunk.

Here's a hint, you'd probably not want to meet the ones who had been imbibing a substance known to provoke aggressive, possibly violent behavior in average people.

if the government allows the freedom to publish articles like this, i see no justification for restricting the freedom to experiment with one's own body

It's refreshing to know that not everyone thinks about what they say before they say it. It helps the rest of us look smarter.

Thanks for sounding ridiculous.

Megan:

How naive can you possibly be? I strongly suggest conducting a bit more research before being so willing to publicly express your misguided views.

The war on drugs is a failed policy - on all accounts - but particularly in terms of the costs to taxpayers. Indeed, it isn't millions that are spent each year, but BILLIONS - at both the state and federal level.

And what have we to show for these billions? Might there be some evidence of progress in this seemingly never-ending erroneous policy? Findings from recent research conducted by the World Health Organization indicate that the U.S. has the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use, among other drugs. So, if I'm not mistaken, we're spending billions in an attempt to eliminate drug use among citizens and yet we're NUMBER 1 in consumption. In what way can this policy be interpreted as successful, appropriate, or worthwhile?

Instead, we might investigate and assimilate drug control policies of European countries such as Spain and the Netherlands, policies which are far less punitive - and yet their national drug usage rates are consistently lower among citizens, generally, and children, specifically.

It seems to me that you're either unaware of the virtual mountain of evidence demonstrating the blunder that is U.S. drug policy, in which case you need to do a bit more investigating (particularly for an employee of a news outlet), or you're just another victim of the U.S. government's propaganda machine supporting this absurd and erroneous policy.