“The War on Drugs”

His name is Malik. Malik was born prematurely. His mother was a long time heroin addict, and she abused drugs up until the day he was born. Poor Malik was hooked on drugs before he even took his first breath. He suffers from a variety of withdrawal symptoms: tremors, muscle spasms, sleeplessness, diarrhea, the list goes on. This child will live a miserable life, then he’ll die prematurely. Most likely, from the HIV virus that he contracted from his mother.

It’s sad, but it’s true that the drug problem in the U.S. has reached epic proportions. We must strive and fight, to keep drugs off of our streets, out of our schools, out of our sight, and out of our minds.

Over the past few decades, we have been fighting an uphill battle to combat drug abuse. In 1971 President Nixon initiated the “war on drugs” in an effort to eradicate the flow of drugs into our country (http://en.wikipedia.org). As a result, the F.B.I., C.I.A., U.S. Customs, U.S. Marshals, Border Protection, Local Police, and several International Organizations have seized massive quantities of drugs, money, and weapons from drug traffickers (http://warondrugs.org).

The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars fighting the war on drugs (http://www.drug sense.org). However, despite our efforts, drugs are becoming cheaper, purer, and more available than ever before. According to John M. Walsh, of the Washington office on Latin America “as of mid year 2003, the estimated retail price per gram of both powder cocaine and heroin were less than a fifth of their 1981 prices. Crack cocaine costs 44 percent less at mid-year 2003 than it did in 1986. . .”. He also stated: “the purity levels of cocaine and heroin rose steeply. . .”.

The demand for illicit drugs in America is increasing at a rapid pace. According to http://www.warondrugs.org, “in 1999 Americans spent 63 billion dollars on illicit drugs”. Home-made meth labs are springing up all across the country. From rural areas, to suburban neighborhoods, meth busts are accumulating at an alarming rate.

The problems associated with drug use are destroying various sociological aspects of our society. Children are dealing drugs in our schools, neighborhoods are turning into war zones, and people are robbing and stealing from their own family members, just to get high.

Despite all of this however, there are many people who oppose the war. They argue that many of the problems such as “drug related crimes” wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for prohibition laws (http://www.thedrugwar.org). In other words, they want to legalize drugs, which in my opinion, would be a terrible mistake. On the other hand , there are some people who oppose the war but they don’t support the legalization of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin, but they believe that marijuana should be legalized.

According to a U.N.’s estimate, 141 million people around the world use
marijuana (http://www.drugwarfacts.org). There is proof that marijuana can be useful for medicinal purpose’s, however, other medications can be just as affective. Therefore, marijuana is not a necessity. Many people argue that marijuana is not harmful. I don’t Agree; it’s been proven otherwise. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a report revealed negative affects of marijuana abuse. Marijuana disrupts coordination, causes respiratory problems, and it causes short term memory damage (www.drug abuse.org).

The facts are solid and clear. Illicit drugs should not be legalized. The physiological, psychological, and sociological affects of drug abuse are horrific. We can’t give up on the fight. We must stay the course. It may seem as if we are losing the battle but the war is far from over. We must continue to strive for a drug free society. We must support the war on drugs.

Think about Malik. How many more babies are we going to allow to be born into this world, hooked on drugs with AIDS. It’s not right, it’s unethical, and it’s immoral.
Support the war on Drugs!