Drugs of all sorts can put great strain on families even tear them apart. I know. I have experienced what illegal drug addiction can do to a family. I also know what alcoholism does to children and to spouses and to parents. I know what prescription drug addiction does to families. And I watched my brother die because of tobacco addiction and Mike lost his brother to a drunk driver.
Of all of these addictions mentioned above, only one sends people to jail just for using. Richard Nixon was the one who started this so-called War on Drugs. How effective has it been in reducing drug use?As you can see from this chart...not a thing.
But the cost is high...too high. Look at the money....Federal, state, local levels are spending $500/second on this non-effective "war". Money better spent on rehab, medical treatments, and support of families.
We have already mentioned last blog on the cost of prisons, society, and families not to mention the people we cage up.
Let's also look at the costs on families in the Americas. Remember all those children fleeing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala and seeking refuge in the United States? They were fleeing corrupt governments that are led by people who make money from drugs. They were fleeing gangs that have sprung up around the drug trafficking trade trying to get drugs into the U.S. 
Cartels have blossomed in Mexico and terrorize their own people. Guns and weapons of all kinds are proliferate. Parents lose their children to gangs pulling kids in whether the kids want to or not.
And when the Central American coalition met to just discuss the possibilities of legalizing drugs in their own sovereign nations in hopes of reducing the violence, the U.S. frowned upon it which means danger for small countries if they disagree with the powerful empire.
This insidious "war" needs to stop. It is doing only harm to families in the U.S. and families throughout the Americas. How can we be so blind to the pain of others and for what reason? No good one that I can see. All I see are governments using drug money to line pockets or implement "dark acts of terror", people getting rich off of the backs of the poor, and violence, violence, violence.
Come on "family value" people, time to end this war and support families.
----------
I need to add, Nicaragua is the second safest countries in the Americas (2nd only to Canada). Nicaragua's children were not fleeing gangs, cartels and death squads, Nicaragua was accepting immigrant children.
-Kathleen
