Are We Winning The War on Drugs?

WASHINGTON -- Americans believe overwhelmingly that the U.S. is losing the war on drugs and are unenthusiastic about spending more money to win it, according to aRasmussen poll released Tuesday.

The national telephone survey found only 7 percent of American adults think the United States is winning the war on drugs, while 82 percent say the country is losing and 12 percent aren't sure. That's a marked decrease in support since AngusReid Public Opinion last posed the question in June, when two-thirds of Americans considered it a failure.

The U.S. government's war on drugs, officially launched in 1971, costs an estimated $20 billion to $25 billion annually in anti-drug policy efforts alone, according toreporting from The New York Times. That doesn't include the tremendous costs associated with prosecuting and incarcerating drug offenders. Meanwhile, hard drug use in America remains steady.

Only 23 percent of survey responders felt the U.S. doesn't spend enough on the war on drugs, while 34 percent think it spends too much. Other poll findings:

-- 51 percent of respondents said alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, while 24 percent said pot is more dangerous and 24 percent aren't sure.

-- 60 percent said marijuana laws should be left to the states, while 27 percent said enforcement should be done by the federal government.

-- 88 percent of respondents said they hadn't smoked pot in the last year.

-- Recent pot users are twice as likely as non-users -- 60 percent to 30 percent -- to think the government spends too much money on the war on drugs.

The survey, which sampled 1,000 adults on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, comes after residents of Colorado and Washington voted last week to approve legalization of recreational marijuana, a historic move that puts them at odds with the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The survey had a sampling error of +/- three percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.

The War On Drugs & Why We Aren't Winning!

 

Today, the United States along with many other countries across the globe are waging an assault on drugs. This assault has taken countless lives, cost billions of dollars but we seem to remain steady in our resolve to continue to wage this war on illegal drugs.  I will admit right now there are smarter people than me right now all over this great planet of ours, but till to this day no one has ever answered me this question, who is the enemy in this war, and are we winning? I believe that being able to answer these two questions are essential to finding a winning strategy in this war much of the globe is engaged in. Unfortunately, I am afraid that nobody has answered my question not because I haven't found the right person but rather that there are no true answers.

The term war is used very broadly especially inside of the United States. Wikipedia declares war as [an openly declared state of organized violent conflict,^[1][2] typified by extreme aggression, societal disruption, and high mortality.^[1] ] In reality there are quite a few ways that we as a society use the term war, for example during football season my Baltimore Ravens go to "war" with the much hated Pittsburgh Steelers twice during the season, and hopefully once more during the post season. Now that I live in Baltimore, it's hard for me to say that people living in the city do not see this sporting event as a war. Here's my point the term war has various meanings especially today. Yet, despite the various definitions there remains characteristics of war that remain. One being that there is an enemy and two there is a winner and a loser.

I would like to argue that the war on drugs has neither and that calling it a war is incorrect because it truly isn't a war with winners or an identifiable enemy. Though there are no winners there are plenty of losers, with that being U.S. the citizens. Whether you do illegal drugs or not, you pay the price for this war.