The Economic Gain from the Drug War Pain

THE ECONOMIC GAIN FORM THE DRUG WAR PAIN

Michael Monk
Economics 262
10-01-2010
Dr. Davis
America’s Drug Problem
Kill them all and let god sort them out! Ok, Ok that may be a little harsh, because…. Well, you cannot commit one crime in the furtherance of another crime….damn, it sure sounds good though!
Drugs, drugs, drugs, who said it was a problem anyway? Was it the pharmaceutical companies? The pharmaceutical companies that dispense and sell legal drugs made six hundred billion dollars in 2000 without the addition of legalized marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and or methamphetamines. Yea, I am sure they would like to get in on the action but they would lose out on all of the other drugs manufactured that could replace the effects of the aforementioned sidelined drugs.
It is my long standing belief that Americans could not sufficiently curb the unknown desire of most illegal drugs; in fact, the vast majority could not stop using marijuana once they started, much less cocaine, even less than that with crack cocaine and let’s not even start talking about heroin.
If I were to strictly put an economic spin to this question, I would have to start with the costs of government oversight of the marijuana fields, coca fields, the labs that produce heroin, crystal meth, and a myriad of others. This alone would cost hundreds of millions a year if not billions. That is not to mention the doctors’ care, rehab for those who now want to quit, and the associated costs of law enforcement officers from the border all the way to the coasts to protect smugglers who now are coming to America to steal our regulated drugs.
According to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), in the year 2000, our taxpaying society spent one hundred sixty million dollars on the five percent of the population who abused illegal drugs. (U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration)
So, if we conservatively doubled the acceptance rate, the taxpayers would be paying much more to deal with the explosion of...