This story is about why the politicians support the war on drugs. Bob Scott, a former Captain of the Macon County Sheriff’s Office was in law enforcement for 15 years and worked to keep his community safe. He is speaking out against America’s costly and ineffective war on drugs.
There is about 50 to 60 million dollars a year that is spent to arrest and or maybe try to incarcerate millions of nonviolent offenders. So the question is why isn’t all of this money being spent on the war not called into question. Another thing we are all aware of is that the war on drugs has failed. Many years ago when the initiative began 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs. Today addiction rates remain at 1.3% and you can find drugs at a cheaper rate and they are even more prevalent than ever before. So why don’t politicians cut this wasteful spending?
“The war on drugs is all about politics,” states Scott, “many elected officials know the war has failed, but are afraid to speak up because they don’t want to seem ‘soft on crime’. When I worked in law enforcement I noticed that the individual police officers were often against the war on drugs, but most sheriffs’s supported it – at least in public. That’s because sheriffs are elected officials and they say what they think voters want to hear, not always what is right.”
Alabama drug rehabs are continuing to fill up despite the massive funding of the “war on drugs”.
There are laws out there that criminalize all aspects of drug use and at the same time they ignore the social and economic benefits of treatment. Treatment for addictions is more cost effective than putting a non-violent offender in jail. It can be that it is time to put politics aside and look at the stark reality of it all. Money is being spent on this drug war and many of us have questions like why isn’t it working and what is actually being done.
If you need the services of long term drug rehabs, call 1-877-340-3602.
