END the WAR on DRUGS FACTS and STATISTICS

END THE WAR ON DRUGS FACTS AND STATISTICS – The Federal Government spends over billion dollars per year in the War on Drugs — almost 0 every second — and we have lost. The reason for this failure is that we are fighting the war on the wrong front. We have focused the battle on stopping the flow of illegal drugs, thinking that our enemy is the drug dealer or the addict. Law enforcement agencies make drug busts — big and small — taking product off the streets and putting dealers and addicts in jail. This doesn’t work because the addict still wants product there is always another drug dealer or pain clinic around the corner. The only true solution is to reduce demand — which means spending the money on Addiction Treatment. Scare tactics like the DEA report (www.usdoj.gov said that “Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States” and that “intelligence estimates indicate a vast majority of the cocaine available in US drug markets is smuggled by Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations across the US– Mexico border.” This type of report fuels the fire and encourages spending more and more money on drug interception — which doesn’t work — rather than substance abuse education, intervention and treatment — which has a much larger impact on demand. The same report also cited a 2007 study that “nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs — more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants, combined …