Like A Cancer, The War on Drugs Is Killing Our Nation's Values - A Local, State and National Failure

Sometimes it is hard to determine who suffers more from delusions, the drug abuser, politicians,  judges or the growing corporate corrections and court referral system. Citizens suffer from our government's abject failure from the war on drugs. This expose will address a growing cancer all across our nation - the cancer of substance abuse and the failure of the war on drugs on multiple levels in our government and our culture.

Fair Use Rights for non-profit news reporting - courtesy of the Matador Network.

Cancer comes in three forms, physical/medical cancer affecting the human body's organs due to cellular mutations; cultural cancer- racism, religious wars, religious persecution and drug abuse are forms of cultural cancers; societal cancer - some say our courts are turning into a societal cancer, declining family values and a lack of fathers and mothers as a family unit, and drug abuse, including the war on drugs.

Here I'll discuss and provide information on the later of the two cancers, cultural and societal as it pertains to drug abuse and the war on drugs failure. I welcome any comments which dispute that the war on drugs is not a failure locally, state wide and nationally.

Many of us have seen the debilitating effects on the individual, family, friends and community when people abuse drugs and alcohol. In many ways substance abuse is far more deadly than the physiological form of the disease we generally call cancer because the cancer of substance abuse has another symptom attached to it, it is called denial. The psychological damage is just as great as the physical damage. This form of cancer many times is much harder to treat because it becomes hidden in friends, family and even in the individual because the individual denies and manipulates others around them in parasitic relationships. As the drug abuse progresses, individuals become psychotic, and this is a sure sign the disease has a grip on the individual and their better senses.

Often the individual cries out for help in many different ways, sometimes those too close will not react or isolate themselves from the individual exhibiting this disease. A true friend will help and also demonstrate tough love and attempt to convince their friend that they need help. 

The other and third type of cancer is cancers of our culture, community, societal cancers so to speak. Leading that list there are several forms of the illness which manifests itself into our society, greed is one where the quest for money overcomes our sense of values; destruction of our environment is another - often greed is associated with that. But, our old foe of substance abuse is right up there with greed and environmental destruction wreaking havoc on our communities.

Our government attempts to wage battles against this common foe, unfortunately that is unsuccessful because of greed and the tendency in our government to disregard individual needs. Individual needs are replaced with the needs of the corporation. We see this locally, state wide and nationally in drug and correction programs. It is seen on a broader scale with spending in the defense industrial complex, billions - trillions spent on the war on drugs failure, all the while ignoring the individual’s need for comprehensive medical treatment.  Think about how far a trillion dollars, or even 50 billion dollars would go regarding individual drug abuse treatment.

The goal of the war on drugs is not about curing the individual problem of substance abuse, the war on drugs is to support corporations and individuals connected with courts and prisons instead of actually treating medically each and every individual infected with this insidious, cancerous disease of addiction called substance abuse. Until there is a change in attitude and a redirection of government policy the problem will grow and our courts and those who think they are resolving the problem will continue on their, and the drug abusers, road of delusion at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Web articles on the subject (Fair use rights for non-profit news reporting and education about drug abuse.)
AP, via FOX News - Using Freedom of Information Act requests, archival records, federal budgets and dozens of interviews with leaders and analysts, the AP tracked where that money went, and found that the United States repeatedly increased budgets for programs that did little to stop the flow of drugs. In 40 years, taxpayers spent more than:

— $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico — and the violence along with it.

— $33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America's youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.

— $49 billion for law enforcement along America's borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.

— $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.

— $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/13/ap-impact-years-trillion-war-drugs-failed-meet-goals/

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) 3 out of 4 Americans believe the war on drugs is a failure  http://www.leap.cc/for-the-media/the-war-on-drugs-at-a-glance/

The costs - “The war on drugs has created a vast criminal market” Maybe this is its’ purpose - http://www.countthecosts.org/seven-costs/wasting-billions-drug-law-enforcement

Propaganda, deceit and the destruction of lives. 15 years ago, and still today our government’s officials do not grasp the problem and continue to make it worse, all for greed. http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/war-drugs-costs-american-lives-liberties

The real world story is always better than fiction – the drug cartels. The reason they exist is due to U.S. policy in a failed war on drugs. Politicians and judges, how many more people are you going to kill because of your ignorance and denial? http://www.newsweek.com/cartel-your-annual-reminder-war-drugs-isnt-over-347085

10 facts about America’s War on Drugs that will shock you  http://matadornetwork.com/change/10-facts-drug-war-will-shock/