Commentary: War on drugs is insane

Editor's note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, "Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream." He provides commentary on CNN's "The Situation Room" daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET. You can also visit Jack's Cafferty File blog.

Jack Cafferty says America's effort to prohibit illegal drugs doesn't work and should be rethought.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Here's something to think about:

How many police officers and sheriff's deputies are involved in investigating and solving crimes involving illegal drugs? And arresting and transporting and interrogating and jailing the suspects?

How many prosecutors and their staffs spend time prosecuting drug cases? How many defense lawyers spend their time defending drug suspects?

How many hours of courtroom time are devoted to drug trials? How many judges, bailiffs, courtroom security officers, stenographers, etc., spend their time on drug trials?

How many prison cells are filled with drug offenders? And how many corrections officers does it take to guard them? How much food do these convicts consume?

And when they get out, how many parole and probation officers does it take to supervise their release? And how many ex-offenders turn right around and do it again?

So how's this war on drugs going?

Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. That's a perfect description of the war on drugs.

The United States is the largest illegal drug market in the world. Americans want their weed, crack, cocaine, heroin, whatever. And they're willing to pay big money to get it.

The drug suppliers are only too happy to oblige. The Mexican drug cartels now have operations in 230 American cities. That's 230 American cities!

And we're not just talking about border towns, but places such as Anchorage, Alaska; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and Billings, Montana. They're everywhere. And they don't just bring drugs, but violence and crime as well -- lots of it at no extra charge.

They have been able to infiltrate those 230 cities because we have not bothered to secure our borders. In addition to illegal aliens who come here to work and avail themselves of our social programs, we have criminals from Mexico bringing drugs in, taking money and guns back, and recruiting American kids into their criminal enterprises while they're here.

What do you suppose the total price tag is for this failed war on drugs? One senior Harvard economist estimates we spend $44 billion a year fighting the war on drugs. He says if they were legal, governments would realize about $33 billion a year in tax revenue. Net swing of $77 billion. Could we use that money today for something else? You bet your ass we could. Plus the cartels would be out of business. Instantly. Goodbye crime and violence.

If drugs were legalized, we could empty out a lot of our prison cells. People will use this stuff whether it's legal or not. Just like they do booze. And you could make the argument that in some cases alcohol is just as dangerous as some drugs. I know.

Like I said ... something to think about. It's time.

I agree, and have been saying this for years :)

People should be allowed to buy and sell drugs then yes?

I think marijuana should be legalized and regulated by the government, then slowly experiment with legalizing other harder drugs.

Well, one assumes that $44 billion is under the margin of error, so they could just sweep all costs on the war on drugs under the carpet ;)

However, simply reclassifying, or legalising, or whatever, to drugs won't really help at all. Serious money needs to be spent in three areas:

- Education: And, no, I don't mean having more of those cheesy groups of adults going around in school uniforms doing a poorly rehearsed play with crappy jokes, I mean proper education. Showing exactly how drugs ruin not just your life, but people around you, as well. And fuck the censorship, show 'em footage of people suffering from fits and other things because they used drugs.

- Rehabilitation: People caught with drugs who are found to be using them shouldn't be banged up, but sent to rehabilitation centres - with support going on for months after they leave (weekly visits, regular phone calls, meetings with advisers, get togethers with other local drug abusers).

- Redevelopment: Many drug hotspots are found in deprived areas where people have nothing to live for. Spend money on redeveloping an area, and get the locals involved - that way, they've got a greater chance of maintaining the new area, and it provides jobs and training - giving people things to aspire towards.

Simply legalising drugs doesn't solve the problem, it just means that the problem becomes more accessible and the Government gets to tax it (the taxes would likely be duty and not value-added, meaning that the drugs will still stay rather expensive, which can cause all sorts of problems).

Samuel,

Legalizing drugs won't solve the problem of people using drugs. However, it will solve the problem of drug cartels in our 230 cities with their army of street pushers. If you legalizing something, you bring it out in the open to be dealt with in a civil way, as there's no 'oh man, they're gonna jail me when they find out I'm on X!' mentality.

Much of the crime and problems associated with drugs aren't their exact usage, but the distribution networks that are involved. How many drug pushers (not users) are killing eachother, and going to jail?

Yes, if you legalized drugs, prices may still stay high, but they'd be lower than now, and you'd take the inherent profit out of the business, so cartels would have to close up shop in the US....Why buy pot made in some nerds dingy basement when you can go to Walgreens and pick up a carton of marijuana cigarettes?

The saddest part of this war on drugs is how many people are dying in it. More people have died in Mexico in a year than US soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined since the wars started.

I am the most anti-drug guy there is...Never have done them, never will. As a youth pastor, I am totally against all forms of bad substances - alcohol, tobacco, and harder substances. Yet despite that, I don't get why we can have so many bad things like alcohol, and suddenly say 'hey, lets build up illegal cartels! It's a great idea!'

Prohibition didn't work because it allowed our home-grown mobs to become very powerful, as they were the only ones able to create & distribute booze. Problem was, a lot of the operations created some horrible drinks like moonshine, which is the leading cause of death due to lead poisonings (80% of lead deaths come from moonshine)....Drugs are the same way. In people's desire for drugs, they've created worse, more risky, and more powerful drugs in an effort to get a faster, better high that is more transportable to avoid detection...Banning them caused this. That great video either Mafoo or Akuma shared by Milt Friedman was great in explaining this stuff.

When people say that it would make drugs more accessible, you have to know just how easy they are to get hold of at the moment. I could easily get myself an eighth by just turning round in one of my classes and asking for it.

Plus don't forget about salvia, its a legal form of weed which is a lot more powerful. They sell it on highstreets, yet you don't often see people smoking it or buying it just because its legal.

Why would legalising drugs put an end to drug cartels? As I said, if drugs were legal, the Gov't would tax them to the hilt, and so the prices would be high. The price of some drugs may go down, but others, that are relatively cheap, would most certainly go up.

Think about it this way: if drugs are legal, then all the people who would already be doing them would continue doing them - one suspects that very few people will be doing drugs simply because they're illegal - but, on top of that, you'll also get people who would've never tried drugs before because they were illegal, and you will also get people doing drugs that wouldn't have even thought about it before.

That means that the demand will rise heavily, this means that the black market would be able to supply the drugs at a lower price now (especially when it would be so much easier to import and illegally manufacture the drugs), many addicts could find themselves turning to the black market, and supporting these cartels all over again.

@Thatmax you're living in a inner-city bubble, it's not as easy to get drugs everywhere, it certainly isn't as easy to get them here. Sure, light drugs (class C & B), are quite easy, but I, and even some of my drug-using friends, wouldn't know where to go for class A drugs.

MD seems to be the drug of choice these days which is class A, I'm really never surprised when someone pulls out a gram. I wish all my friends could just drink like me, not all my friends are into this stuff but the majority is :S

You know, if we just stopped enforcing the law all together we'd get rid of all this time and and money?

But that's a stupid idea, just like his.