The U.S. Government should take a chance with a new approach towards the war on drugs obviously the one in effect now is not working to well. I do not think that the government will ever be able to tell the U.S. public that they have succeeded in the fight on the War on Drugs. Let's face it the war on drugs can not be won because the enemy is us, the American family.
             The U.S. government has spent about 191,790,000,000 dollars of the tax payers money from the years of 1981 up to the current year of 2002. What do they have to show for all of this? Not much except maybe the overcrowding of U.S. prisons because of petty drug charges. Every time the government arrests a small time drug dealer two more pop up ready to take his place. Any person can go to any major city in the U.S. and buy whatever type of drug they want whenever they want. It's as easy as taking candy from a baby. All the person has to do is ask around and probably within a half hour they could find what they're looking for. So what is it that this war on drugs has actually done? Not much except waste taxpayers hard earned money.
             The government is also spending major amounts of money to fight the war on drugs with such programs as D.A.R.E.( Drug Abuse Resistance Education). These programs are held in schools across America to try and educate students about the consequences of using illegal drugs. You could ask any student in high school if they think of what their D.A.R.E. officer told them about drugs when someone offers them some sort of mind altering substance. I could say that almost every one of those students will say no, that it doesn't even cross their minds. These programs can't train kids how to react when under pressure in trying an illegal drug. So once again not much is coming out of this so called war on drugs.
             Lets take for example marijuana. "About 40 percent of marijuana in the United States comes from the hills of Kentuc...