War on Drugs Creates More Bad Than Good for Children

While the War on Drugs has been fought for the past several decades in the name of protecting the youth of America, a recent report has found that this “What About the Children?” approach to combating the insurgence of illegal substances in the United States has all been a ruse intent on sucking kids into a cesspool of addiction and incarceration.

A new report published by global drug-reform group Count the Costs reveals that 50-years worth of enforcement-based controls on illegal substances has spawned nothing but ill results.

The report finds that in forcing the drug trade underground, Uncle Sam has enabled a sickening environment that perpetuates attitudes of discrimination and racism. To make things worse, the whole rotten system is insistent upon spending billions of taxpayer dollars to maintain this ridiculousness.

It goes on to explain that under the guise of public safety, youngsters have been sabotaged and violated by a War on Drugs, which has done nothing but promote street violence, create struggles for families and give way to a land where a non-violent criminal record can cripple any opportunity of achieving what is left of the American Dream.

“This war, while declared in the name of protecting young people from the ‘drug threat,’ has ironically exposed them to far greater harm. The War on Drugs is, in reality, a war on people,” reads the report.

Interestingly, while the report reiterates the wickedness of the drug war, there is growing evidence that this madness could be largely contained if the entire nation would simply follow in the footsteps of legal marijuana states like Colorado.

In fact, some of the latest statistics from the Bureau of Justice show that the majority of all drug-related arrests are for simple possession and not production.

Almost 83 percent of the total drug arrests in the U.S. happen because a person is caught holding an illegal substance, while only about 18 percent are for illegal manufacture or sale. However, of these arrests, possession of marijuana, a substance now legal in some fashion in over half the U.S., brings on the most heat—over 42 percent of the arrests for holding a little weed.

The latest Gallup Poll found that 1-in-10 Americans use marijuana, making the green stuff the most popular illegal substance in the nation. Yet, the federal government refuses to give Americans the right to use the herb without fear of prosecution.

Much like with alcohol in the 1930s, ending pot prohibition nationwide would eliminate the majority of the problems that five decades of anti-pot government has created. As the Count for Cost report points out, prohibition of illegal substances does nothing to prevent young people from becoming users, “but it does dramatically increase the risks for those who do.”

“As a growing number of jurisdictions implement far-reaching drug policy reforms, it is time for governments, international bodies and civil society to count the costs of the war on drugs and participate in the growing discussion on alternative approaches that could deliver better outcomes – especially for children and young people,” the report said.