Downtown Atlanta. A nine-month-old baby is killed by a stray bullet. When asked about this, the police chief says, "This is tragic. But the baby was simply a casualty of war. "

In Los Angeles, there was actually an afternoon TV show produced by and for people who have had children and other loved ones killed in drive-by shootings!

It used to be that kids were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Now the gruesome joke is, "What do you want to be IF you grow up?"

The war we're talking about is the so-called War on Drugs, and it has had - and is having -- a devastating effect on our inner cities. And notice I didn't say drugs are having this effect; I said the War on Drugs is having this effect.

Ladies and gentlemen, we don't have a drug problem; we have a police
problem. We have a drug policy problem.

My friend Susan is fond of sarcastically saying that she has the solution to the so-called drug problem: Let's just make drugs illegal; then no one can get them." As silly as this sounds, that's precisely the logic behind the Drug War.

I submit to you that it is time to call a truce - to surrender if you will. It is time -- past time -- to legalize drugs. This may sound shocking, but I think the facts I'm going to share with you will shock you even more.

Let's look at the facts.

First, the Drug War is totally ineffective. It has failed to reduce overall
use of illegal drugs or even availability. Narcotics were no more prevalent before Prohibition than now, and cocaine is more widespread.

And it's easy to see that drug laws actually cause more harm than good:

(1) by increasing the price, forcing users to steal to pay for their habits.
It is estimated that 40% of property crimes are committed by drug users -- 4 million crimes per year; $7.5 billion in stolen property.

(2) Prohibition creates stronger and more dangerous drugs. Seen any white lightning lately? Crack cocaine and many designer drugs would not even exist without Prohibition.

(3) by criminalizing use of drugs, we create criminals. Once a person is labeled a criminal, why not commit other crimes? Once that threshold is crossed, it's hard to come back.

(4) normal jobs don't pay enough, so we discourage people from working. This especially affects young people who find role models in punks wearing gold jewelry, leaning against their Mercedes, and smearing at any kid who takes a minimum wage job. And why should a child aspire to anything else when he is given the opportunity to make thousands of dollars a week?

(5) drug-related disputes are removed from the legal system, thus creating a context of violence.

(6) the black market creates jobs -- for professional criminals.

(7) users are forced to have daily contact with criminals.

(8) the violence associated with drug trafficking kills innocent people -- many of them children. Children in our inner cities are afraid to walk to school and are terrified just lying in their own beds at night.

(9) And let's not forget the COSTS. Law enforcement costs alone are over $13 billion per year. The economic cost has been estimated at over $80 billion -- money funneled into the black market. Not to mention lost productivity. And of course we can't put a price tag on the lost lives. Milton Friedman estimated that at least one-half - or 10,000 - of gun deaths each year are a direct result of drug laws.

(10) The cost of incarcerating a drug offender is amazing. There's not enough jail space, so when someone is imprisoned under mandatory sentences, violent criminals have to be released. For each year a drug offender serves, there will be an estimated 40 robberies, 7 assaults, 110 burglaries and 25 car thefts. I don't know about you, but I feel a whole lot safer.

(11) Drug laws corrupt the entire legal system, especially the police -- just
like alcohol Prohibition did.

(12) The Bill of Rights has been virtually gutted by the Drug War. With seizure of property, invasion of privacy, searches, drug-testing --- a whole speech could be written on this topic alone. Even the 2nd amendment comes under this category. If you believe in the right to bear arms, you better be against the Drug War, because that is the main impedance behind gun seizure. A bill has actually been introduced into Congress calling for the repeal of the 2nd amendment, and use of guns by drug dealers was cited as its reason.

(13) Not to mention that the whole idea behind the War on Drugs is
immoral and can never be justified. The premise is that the government has a right to tell you and me what we can and cannot put into our bodies. Whose body is this anyway? I don't know how you feel about this, but my body does not belong to the government.

But what about deaths from drugs? Well here are the figures: each year while alcohol kills 150,000 and tobacco kills 390,000, 400 people die from heroin, 200 from cocaine, 0 from marijuana. And remember that almost all the deaths from illegal drugs are directly caused by Prohibition. To borrow from the gun-rights' bumper sticker: illegal drugs don't kill people; drug LAWS kill people.

Virtually all drug-related violence is really drug-law-related violence. You need only look at the lack of violence in the legal drug market. There's no violence in the sale of alcohol, cigarettes… aspirin.

But, you may be asking, wouldn't we be condoning drug usage if we legalized drugs? This is simply nonsense. As a society, we don't condone cigarette smoking. We don't condone the philosophy of Adolf Hitler or the KKK. Yet we allow people to choose to smoke, we allow publication of Mein Kompf, we let the Klan march down Main Street. Because in this country we condone freedom of expression. We condone individual choice.

The idea of getting rid of drugs sounds like a noble one. But it's a pipe dream. It’s simply not going to happen.

Let's face it, there is and always will be a market for unhealthy things that make some people feel better. There's a market for alcohol, for cigarettes, for butter. For drugs.

Wardens and guards can't keep drugs out of our federal prisons, yet there are those who want to turn this country into a prison in an attempt to eliminate drugs.

You may not use drugs, but believe me, the casualties of war affect you ¬directly and indirectly. In your taxes. In the violence on the streets. In our children's futures.

We've all heard that great definition of insanity: Insanity is keeping on doing the same thing and expecting different results. That's what we've been doing. Throwing more money and more lives at the problem and expecting things to get better. They won't until we end this insanity.

There is blood in the streets – and blood on the hands of all politicians who won't admit what has to be done. Including one politician name Bill Clinton, who refused to even look at the research on this issue. I wonder if he thinks he should have been arrested when he smoked marijuana? Oh, that's right, he didn't inhale, but the law doesn't say "If the person didn't inhale, it's OK." An arrest just might have hindered his future career plans.

Courageous people from all political spectrums are finally realizing what has to be done and are calling for the repeal of drug laws. Curtis Schmoke, mayor of Baltimore, conservative journalists William F. Buckley and Joseph Sobran. Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman. Former secretary of state George Schultz. And YOU, I hope.

We must demand that Congress put an end to this NOW.

And what will be the results? Realize that I'm not calling for a radical experiment. I'm calling for the end of a failed experiment -- for re-Iegalization of drugs. Drugs were legal in this country well into the 20th century. Opium, morphine, and cocaine were legal and cheap, available in grocery stores, drugstores and through the mail. Yet we had none of the violence and other criminal problems we associate with drugs today.

The day after repeal of the drug laws, our streets will be safer. Real drug education can begin. Drug dealers will be gone. Organized crime will take an $80 billion cut in pay. We will live in a safer and freer country.

No longer will punk drug dealers harass and intimidate our children. We can once again ask them, “What would you like to be when you grow up?”

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Please note: This article was originally written as a speech. The author wishes to thank James W. Harris for research, help with writing, and major editing. Feel free to use this material as a speech -- we want this information to get out there to as many people as possible! If used in written form, please give proper credit. Thank you!

 About the author: Sharon Harris is president of the Advocates for Self-Government She is also author of "The Invisible Hand Is a Gentle Hand," "They Pry Them from Our Cold, Dead Fingers," and "What Should We Do about Guns?"