Drugs and crime

I got carried away last Friday and asked my fellow bloggers about their ideas on how to deal with the drug problem in our country. The response has been very thoughtful and reasoned. My original post:

The policy of the government over the last 40, 50 or 60 years has been to lock-up people because they use drugs. Politicians run on a platform of locking up all the drug dealers. We blame other countries because they supply drugs to the United States but we can't figure out how to convince people not to use them in the first place. I don't have the answers, I wish I did. Something has to change. Our local prison is overflowing and the US has more people in prison than almost any other industrialized country. The perception is that Wilkes-Barre has become a war zone over drugs. True or not, that is the perception. There has to be another way of dealing with this problem. Our political leaders have to step up and give us some realistic solutions to this problem.

Mark at Wilkes-Barre Online pointed out the Hypocrisy of the politicians, the parents of teenagers who use drugs and the economics of the rehab industry. Dr. Rick at The American Check-up had a well researched post that mapped it out. PSoTD understands why just throwing people in jail doesn't work. LVDem suggests a way out. Left Independent has the national security angle of this problem.

Update: Above Average Jane examines the whole spectrum of the problems associated with both legal and illegal drugs.

Mixed Messages

I watch the tube at night and when I'm subjected to the ads I wonder what they are trying to tell us. I see an ad about a pill that will help my arthritis, followed by one for my allergies and then a pill that will help my love life. A little later you get one that tells kid's not to use drugs. A little later you find out who to sue when the drug doesn’t work or the side effects that include growing a third ear.