My entire life has been spent in the midst of the ''war on drugs''. My journey with them really started at the age of ten. That was the year I met my first D.A.R.E  officer. He walked into my fifth grade classroom and handed out a written vow, that I signed, saying that I would never try drugs. It was that same year that I broke that vow. I smoked a joint while skateboarding with some teenagers down the road from my childhood home. If you are like most people you're probably thinking, ''Wow, ten years old, thats really young''. If you grew up in Southern California in the 80's and 90's, its fairly common.

    Despite the warnings that drugs would fry my brain, like an egg thrown on the blacktop at high noon on one of those famously hot southwestern summer days, since the age of ten, I have done just about every drug imaginable. Much to the chagrin of myself, and others, I turned out , relatively, pretty damn good. You see, drugs started as an escape from the chaos of my broken family life. In my opinion a helpful crutch. During my early twenties they morphed into a different experience. One of experimentation of the far expanses of reality. I tested the boundries of how far I could get out there and still come back. Today, I'm a little wiser. However, if good circumstance permits it, there may be a seriously altered state or two left in my future. 

   Through it all I have never been an ''addict'' in the sense that I needed a substance to get me through. I could always do without drugs, but I enjoyed when they were around. I guess you could brand me lucky, because I am not so naive as to suggest that drugs are without their consequences. I've had my fair share of bad experiences. I've watched friends, and a couple relatives, fade away into the depths of addiction. Despite the fact some of their actions have made me very angry at times, I have never thought these people should be treated as criminals. That is, as long as they stayed clear of the theft. Rather, they should be treated with empathy and compassion. In most cases their addiction stemmed from a need to mask something from their past. A couple got out with their sanity in tact. Most are either ghosts of themselves or dead.

   I am suggesting that this is not the status quo though. I have known many, many more functioning drug users than dysfunctional ones. I've done cocaine, speed, LSD and heroin, to name a few, with everyone from doctors, lawyers and stock brokers to carpenters, farmers and factory workers. Thats not even to mention, a drug which I think a good third of the people I know use, marijuana. People are going to do what they are going to do. If you aren't physically harming anyone, a person should not be punished for, what some may consider, irresponsible personal choices. In my opinion you can't govern morality. When you try, you end up with worse problems than ''a tear in the moral fabric of a country'', which brings me to my next point.

   Lets get to the second lesson which that D.A.R.E officer walked into my fifth grade classroom to teach. The danger of gang affiliation. With the war on drugs came an explosion of neighborhood gangs in Southern California. Why? Well, its common sense really. With the crackdown on drugs and the extension of penalties for buyers and sellers came the need for a distribution network which didn't face those same stiff penalties. This need would be filled by juvenile gangs. Its simple economics that where there is a demand there will be a supply. This applies to both the production of a good and the distribution of it.

   Take the business of inner city marijuana, as an example, for those of you who don't know how the ''drug game'' works for gangs. A person, usually an adult with some connections, can buy an ounce (or 28 grams) of decent marijuana for around 300 bucks. This is buying it by the individual ounce. Usually its cheaper than this, because a successful drug dealing gang leader buys more than an ounce at a time, but back to the point. They can take that same ounce, split it into 1 gram bags, and give it to a juvenile. The juvenile takes it to the streets where they sell those gram bags for 20 bucks a pop. Essentially after a days work the kid doubles the dealers money, and recieves usually about half of the profit, 100-150 bucks. Not a bad living for a teenager in the city. The thing is the adult in this equation has 10 kids working the street for him. For those of you not too quick with the math thats 1000-1500 dollars a day. Keep in mind this is a small time dealer, dealing in the lowest risk, lowest reward drug in the market.

   Now that same dealer has a territory to protect, so what does he spend their money on? What else, guns. Then he sends juveniles out in the streets to instill fear in their community, and protect their territory. Hence, we have drive-by shootings, kidnapping plots and just plain old murder. Slowly he expands their empire, streamlines their profit structure and in most cases moves to the suburbs. All the while still raking in the cash, as he installs ''generals'' to do the high risk jobs he once did within their territory. In some cases the creator of this environment is a group of individuals. The closer to the source you get, the more ruthless the business becomes. Look at what we see from the drug cartels, and make no mistake about it the gap between drug cartels and American street gangs is getting closer and closer. A perfect example is MS-13. So how big of a threat are gangs? According to the FBI, in 2008 there were 1,382,012 violent crimes. Of those 16,272 were murders. Out of those violent crimes the FBI estimates that 80 percent of them are committed by one million American gang members.  Yes, you heard that right. 80 percent of violent crimes in America are commited by gangs. Also I think it is worth noting that the  Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates only half of all nonfatal violent crimes were reported to the police in 2008.

   If it is not clear to you by now that this country has a huge problem with gangs, that are financed mostly by drugs, I don't know what else I can say to pursuade you. I now live in North Carolina, and the threat here is as real as ever. The question is, what do we do to fix it? Well, it's quite simple really. We cut their lifeline, and legalize drugs. Legalize, regulate, tax and educate. End the cycle of violence in America, and beyond for that matter. Lets not forget that ''Al Qaida'' is essentially a gang and drug cartel in Afghanistan financed by heroin. If heroin was legal to manufacture in America it would cripple ''Al Qaida''. The money that we the people would make in taxes is staggering. NORML estimates that as of 8:50 pm January 31st, 2010 934 million has been spent on marijuana prohibition by the US government. 2.7 billion could have been made off marijuana if it was taxed like alcohol. 65,000 have been arrested for possession only. Keep in mind this is only for marijuana, and only in the month since the new year. According to drugwarfacts.org  there are more than 2 million people in American prisons or jails. Approximately one-quarter of those people held in U.S. prisons or jails have been convicted of a drug offense. According to FBI reports, 83 percent of drug arrests are for possession of illegal drugs alone. Basically we can do away with around 400,000 non-violent drug offenders in our prison system. At an average cost of 35,000 dollars per year, per inmate, that is a pretty big chunk of change.

   I know that drugs can cause a lot of pain and misery. No matter what you try, and do, all societies will have problems with addiction. I also realize that drugs can be used for good too. The effects of prohibition are obvious. Did we learn nothing from the early 1900's and alcohol? Once again, you can't govern morality. Drugs are going to be supplied, and they are going to be used. The question is, do you want them supplied by shady people who terrorize the masses and cost us billions, or do you want them supplied by regulated legal companies who will make us billions? Billions which, among other things, 1.can be used to protect us from domestic terrorists which surround us, and are the main cause for violence in our country, and 2. can be used for better treatment, and further education, of drug abuse. For me the answer is getting more and more clear.