The War On Drugs

Introduction
The war on drugs, declared by Richard Nixon in 1971, has cost the US more than just a trillion dollars. The war on drugs was the US government’s attempt to solve the drug epidemic raging in America, yet it caused more problems than it solved. A supply side war on illegal drugs has generated a large array of problems that no US politician is willing to acknowledge. Yet most of these problems such as more dangerous drugs, an increase in organized crime, and wasted government spending, could be eradicated if the US government legalized all drugs and adopted the four pillar drug strategy. The war on drugs has done the exact opposite of its intentions and as a result, drugs are much more potent and dangerous to the user.
Description
If there were no drugs, then there would not be an issue with drug abuse. What the war on drugs did however was open a variety of ways for drugs to get into the United States. While the war on drugs did shut down many ways to produce illegal drugs in the United States, it failed to stop the supply of drugs coming in from other countries. It actually created the market for outsourced drugs. This allows more professionally made drugs to come into the country and as a result, the illegal narcotics were more potent and harmful to the user. While smuggling drugs into other countries, “to minimize the risk of detection per amount of narcotic supplied, suppliers make drugs as small and light as possible. This means higher potency.” Another reason that the drugs are more potent is due to the fact that there is no cost difference between smuggling highly potent drugs and non potent drugs into countries. This means there is no cost difference for the user and the demand for highly potent drugs goes up. One more reason that the war on drugs has created dangerous drugs is because without legalization of the drugs, there can be no brand name attached to the drug. “Thus, when a dealer sells a bad dose, he does not damage the reputation of a supply chain nearly as much as when, say, Tylenol sells a bad dose.” This means that nobody is held reliable for producing poor quality drugs and there is no consequences for
Yet if nothing good comes from the war on drugs, it is wasted spending. This money comes primarily from tax dollars and, “Taxes restrict individual liberty by taking away people's freedom to spend their money on goods and services.” So not only does the US government wastefully spend $51 billion each year, but they also confines a person’s individual freedom. However the US government is not the only nation involved in the war on drugs, in fact many first world countries and even desperate third world countries are spending their own billions of dollars. This money is spent in a variety of ways in an attempt to reduce drug supply. One of such ways is trying to rid farms of the plants used to make certain drugs by sending armies, having planes spray poisonous chemicals etc. Money is spent on stopping the mobilization of these drugs by sending police forces, air forces, and armed forces. One unintended consequence is that many officers and soldiers are killed trying to stop the drugs. A third way that some of this money can be spent is on satellite technology and radars. The only problem with all of this is that even with all the spending, the drugs still make it