How Can We Win The War On Drugs?

Start holding the politicians and big businessmen, the military, et.al. responsible. The drugs don't get here on their own. There's a lot of "looking the other way" going on. You can't get a pair of nail clippers on a plane, but you can ship a pound of heroin. You can't land on our soil without clearance and without going through customs, but you can fly kilos of cocaine from Columbia; the Coast Guard catches all the Haitian and Cuban boats and refugees, but a drug smuggler can breach the coast for thousands to millions in profit. Come on!!!

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Very good question, however I personally don't understand how war can be declared on inanimate objects.

It's a war that cannot be won, in my opinion. The love of money, greed, and power that is involved in the drug trade is great enough to seduce any human that seeks these things. Great enough that even some law enforcement officials become involved to protect those in the illicit drug trade. It's a 'war' that will always be among the human population.

I've been a RN in an emergency room since 1991. I have NEVER seen a marijuana overdose. Its safer than alcohol or tobacco. Marijuana has a stigma thus its not legalized but much easier on your body than a night of heavy binging of alcohol. Can't we legalize marijuana tax it and put the money to good use. ( social security, affordable medicine for the elderly, finding an alternative to petroleum fuel, ect.) In addition, we would save billions on the war on drugs thus we gain money two ways. I've seen too many young people die of heroine overdoses and to many large hearts from cocaine abuse so they are out. We had a previous war on drugs called prohibition and we all saw how that worked. Look at Amsterdam their country didn't collapse. People will always find drugs and legalizing some will take a tremendous burden off of our budget.Thank you for an awesome question!!!!!!!!!!

The "War on Drugs" is not something you can "Win", it would be like having a war on crime. Technically we have a war on crime, but just because we can't rid ourselves of it completely doesn't mean we just throw our hands in the air and give up. Just like the war on crime, the war on drugs has Significantly reduced drug usage in the United States. In fact today the drug that costs taxpayers the most due to increased police officers, increased crime, increased involved ment in violent crime, and the most into hospital spending is the ONLY LEGAL DRUG - ALCOHOL.

In fact Alcohol causes more damage to our nation than all illicit drugs combined. Why? Because it's legal. People can partake of it freely. Can you imagine a nation were people could partake of drugs many times more powerful than alcohol freely? Imagine our Alcohol problem times 10.

Anyhow to answer your question. Here is my proposition.

In the early 1980's, the US military found that it's drug usage rate was between 20-30% ! In an effort to reduce this the military began random drug tests of all military personel of all ranks. By the year 2000 just 20 years later drug usage among military members is less than 1%.

So there are without a doubt ways to reduce drug usage. Making laws tougher, random drug screenings. The question is how many freedoms are Americans willing to give up in order to reduce drug usage?

I also think one of our major problems is that we've nearly tied our law enforment's hands in it's ability to deter drug usage. Those caught in possesion of illeagal drugs are usually given a warning, or a worst a fine or a token amount of jail time. I think punishment should be harsher. Manditory 1 month jail for the first offence, and double the time for ever offense thereafter, up to 2 years.

I do not think it will ever be won. Look at cigarettes and alcohol for ex...they are legal but considered as drugs.

Look at that age old corny thing about prostitution.

Whatever people look for to make them feel good : they will find a way.

People will always look for a way to escape from reality. Some in good ways like creativity some in drugs. Their choice, nature versus nurture, peer groups, poverty, what they believe is cool .......multitude of reasons.

Drugs have always existed. Even earlier than the coca leaf.

What is a drug anyway ? caffeine ? crack ? exercise ?

Everybody says EDUCATION..yes...but when in a material world you are considered by how you are worth equivalent to the money in your bank account......some throw it all..

Stupid really. Because there are still plenty of people who like others for themselves and not what they earn, skin colour, origin, gender etc.

(maybe I will come back...do not have the time right now).

Who said that we "all" want to have a war on drugs? I want to have a war on drugs myself... I hate to see people dying from it or become useless beings, but some evidences were shown that some officials actually allow drugs to pass by to certain "people", and I don't think it's to make those "people" rich or high, but to keep them in a status of numbness and too weak to become something - if u know what I mean.

A good strategy is to have someone honest who is willing to really STOP the drugs flow, and I believe it's not difficult if we applied some laws that are used in other countries to really prevent drug selling and usage. For selling in those countries, they definitely will hang/kill the drug dealer, and for usage they put the addict in asylums that he'd never ever want to go back to in his life... some kind of torture, but it works.

It is next to impossible -- indeed it has proven entirely impossible -- to stop drugs at their source (e.g. Columbia, Mexico, etc.). So, politicians have turned the drug addicted in criminals. I am old enough to remember the "if we put the drug addicts in jail, crime rates will go down" arguments that proliferated in the 1970s.

People wanted alcohol during prohibition, and got it. People want drugs, and they will continue to get them! I was disappointed when Mexican President Fox decided not to decriminalize certain drugs. Treatment will help many, though not all. It's time to quit wasting money on incarceration, and start offering real alternatives.

The so-called "war" on drugs is an illusion fabricated by the government to cause fear and raise money for people who are not us. Every drug shgould be legalized. People need to take responsibility for their actions. If someone is dumb enought to ruin their life with drugs, then so be it. That's not my problem.

The only way to win the war on drugs is to raise the stakes. You have to make it extremely costly in some way for drug manufacturers and dealers to do business. I say if you catch them and convict them you immediately kill them.

The best way to win at this point is to cut losses and regulate trade. Any retard can see that prohibition doesn't work, no matter how hard you pray. Our government is spending outrageous sums of money "fighting" potheads and the potheads are kicking ***. Time to throw in the towel, bitches.