Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2002
Source: Union, The (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Nevada County Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theunion.com/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: Charley Hooper

REAL COSTS OF DRUG PROHIBITION

Terrorism is funded by drug profits. Let's not stop there. Ever wonder why 
terrorists don't get their money selling toasters or wallets? They need the 
outrageous profits that can come only from illegal products that are priced 
50 times their normal value.

Prohibition's appeal is telling people what they can and cannot ingest. But 
we pay for this privilege - and pay and pay. First we pay $19 billion to 
wage the war on drugs. Then we pay $60 billion to arrest and incarcerate 
millions of people who are simple drug users. Then we pay the price of 
inevitable police corruption. Next we pay $47 billion because of increased 
crime surrounding the drug trade. Then drug users in this country spend an 
extra $100 billion due to inflated prices. Where does this money go? It 
goes to foreigners, some of whom despise us. A few dislike us so much that 
they buy weapons and try to kill us. To prevent this, we pay $340 billion 
for defense. Defense is always imperfect, so we pay addition billions for 
the inevitable destruction that sneaks through.

Drug users are a fact of life. Some countries have gone so far as institute 
a death penalty for drug use. The result? The drug users simply went 
further underground. Even if you put every American into jail, drugs would 
still be prevalent. We can see prisoners today that have managed to smuggle 
drugs into prison.

We can't get rid of the users, but we can get rid of the profits, just was 
we did for alcohol when we ended Prohibition. Do you still want to tell 
your neighbors what they can and can't ingest? Better be ready to pay the 
price: More than $1,000 from each of us, year after year. Me, I'd rather go 
to Hawaii.

Charley Hooper,
Grass Valley
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MAP posted-by: Alex