Pubdate: Mon, 31 Oct 2011
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2011 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Chester Baran

WEALTHY AMERICANS AND DRUG USE

I am baffled by the economics of the illegal drug trade. If expenses 
include raw material, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and 
protection, where does the profit arise? What we read in print and 
see on TV is an inner-city market of junkies and venturesome, 
suburbanite teens, sporadic usage by middle class adults and 
uninhibited usage by the thrill-seeking or stressed-out wealthy.

There can't be much money in selling to junkies and teens so, if 
there are a big profit to be made, then it has to come from middle 
class and wealthy users. If that is so, then the citizens who are 
considered to be the bedrock of our society are at the same time the 
cash cow for the drug trade. If the middle class and wealth are 
supposed to be what we aspire toward, why worry about the effects of 
drugs on our society when drugs have already infected the society's 
movers and shakers with little consequences to them?

If drugs are indeed a problem, then our efforts to control them 
should be directed at the source of drug profits. If we choose not to 
do that, legalizing drugs should not be such a frightening prospect 
to consider because they seem to not to have done harm to our most 
prominent citizens.

- -- Chester Baran, Gary, Ind.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom