Editor’s Note: This is the second column in a two-part seriesabout the United States’ involvement in the war on drugs. The firstinstallment ran Tuesday, March 26.
Yesterday, I wrote about our need to treat drugs as a socialproblem instead of a criminal problem — the approachEurope has taken to drug addiction. I also addressed the hypocriticaldissonance this country has between its attitudes toward legal drugs(such as alcohol and tobacco) and the illegal ones. Today I want tolook at how addictive drugs are, the costs of our “war,” and thedisturbing racial inequalities of enforcement.
Nobody is going to dispute that drugs like cocaine and heroin areextremely addictive. It is, however, a common misconception thatillegal drugs are far more addictive than alcohol and tobacco. Thisis by no means a safe assumption.
In a study conducted by the University of San Francisco and theNational Institute on Drug Abuse, the addictive qualities of sixdrugs (cocaine, heroin, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and marijuana)were studied. Both USF and the NIDA found tobacco to be the most drugon which people become most dependent, and alcohol showed thestrongest signs of withdrawal. In both tests, heroin and cocainefinished second and third, respectively.
It’s also interesting to note that caffeine was more addictive andshowed more withdrawal symptoms than marijuana. Furthermore,marijuana was last in all categories compared with the other fivedrugs.
What does this all mean?
It means that in just about any store in America (if you are 18),you can buy something that will make you more dependent than heroinor cocaine, and if you are 21, you can buy a substance that will giveyou worse symptoms of withdrawal. Herein lies yet another hypocrisyof our drug war.
As far as costs go, the truth is even more painful. In mostjurisdictions, it costs between $350,000 and $450,000 to try,sentence and incarcerate one addict for 5 years. This amount of moneycould be used to provide treatment or education for up to 200 people!According to the Department of Justice, the prison population hasdoubled since 1985, and increased five-fold since 1979. Our taxdollars are being woefully misspent.
The money being spent on locking up all those users could be spenttreating or educating 200 times that number of people. With a currentprison population of 1.5 million people, we could have paid for thetreatment of 300 million addicts. That’s more than the entirepopulation of the United States.
But the worst has yet to come.
Racism is not yet gone in this country, and the facts are there toprove it. Everybody knows that crack users are punished more severelythan cocaine users, and it’s also common knowledge that due tosocioeconomic conditions, African American drug users are more likelyto use crack than cocaine. On the other hand, most cocaine users arewhite, and they are given much lighter sentences than crack abusers.Also, blacks continue to get the short end of the stick on theenforcement of most illegal drug laws. An African American man withan ounce of weed is going to get a much stiffer sentence than a whiteman with an ounce of weed. These policies have had a brutal effect onblack communities. Presently, 25 percent of black men living in theUnited States are either in prison or on parole.
Wait, it gets worse. Two out of three black men who are currentlyin high school will be dead, disabled or in prison before they reach30 years of age. These are, to say the least, disturbing facts. Andtheir source is not some policy group’s bought-and-paid-for study;it’s the United States Department of Justice.
This brings me to the end of my column, and I want to urge peopleto fight against the war on drugs.
It is only doing our country harm; there are much better ways wecan help addicts, end abuse and spend our tax dollars. Please, vote”No” on any legislation that would escalate this atrocious “war,” andvote “Yes” on legislation that will treat and educate drug abusers.
Also, keep an eye on situations like the U.S. involvement inColumbia, where the war on drugs is killing thousands of civiliansevery year, and not always fighting drugs. (Currently, we are toobusy protecting oil interests in Columbia to bother with drugs, butthat’s another column for another time.)
–Blaine Sullivan is a philosophy junior.
–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed — includeyour full name, major and year in school.
