The number of drug deaths in the US in a typical year is as follows:

Tobacco kills about 390,000.
Alcohol kills about 80,000.
Sidestream smoke from tobacco kills about 50,000.

The economic cost to U.S. society of drug abuse was an estimated $97.7 billion in 1992, according to recent calculations.

The parallel cost to society for alcohol abuse was estimated at $148 billion, bringing the total cost for substance abuse in 1992 to $246 billion. This total represents a cost of $965 for every person in the United States in 1992. The per-person cost for drug abuse alone was $383.

Entire segments of the Federal Government are involved. The DEA, FBI, BATF for starters. And all 50 states have special organizations to deal with it. We're talking tens of thousands of cops, judges, prosecutors, lab techs--the list goes on. The resources devoted to fighting this "war" are astronomical. And yet, things are little better than before.

Most politicians, if you get them to talk after a few drinks, will admit that it's a scam, a political pork barrel that provides tons of jobs for law enforcement and corrections officers.

Let's legalize and tax these substances, and use the money for things like education, defense, and Social Security. Our society will be the better for it.

I also noted the failure of the prohibition of alcohol from 1919 to 1933. And the crime wave that Prohibition set in motion so like the one today since "both the Bureau of Narcotics and the Mafia want strong laws against the sale and use of drugs because if drugs are sold at cost there would be no money in them for anyone." Will anything sensible be done I wondered? "The American people are as devoted to the idea of sin and its punishment as they are to making money--and fighting drugs is nearly as big a business as pushing them. Since the combination of sin and money is irresistible (particularly to the professional politician), the situation will only grow worse." I suppose, if nothing else, I was a pretty good prophet.

The media constantly deplore the drug culture and, variously, blame foreign countries like Colombia for obeying that Iron law of supply and demand to which we have, as a notion and as a nation, sworn eternal allegiance. We also revel in military metaphors. Czars lead our armies into wars against drug dealers and drug takers. So great is this permanent emergency that we can no longer afford such frills as habeas corpus and due process of law....Gore Vidal

"In reality, illegal drugs are at least as harmful, if not more harmful, than alcohol and tobacco. Illegal drugs kill fewer people only because fewer people use them. Keeping them illegal holds use down: 18 million marijuana users compared to 116 million alcohol users; 6 million cocaine users compared to 60 million tobacco users."

"The single greatest difference between legal and illegal drugs is that illegal drugs generate no profits to spend on advertising and marketing. Once a democratic society legalizes drugs, the forces of free trade and free speech will take over. Cocaine, marijuana, heroin, PCP, LSD and other currently illegal drugs will be mass-marketed as alcohol and tobacco are mass marketed today. Far more people will use newly legalized drugs and far more people will die."

"Alcohol is the leading cause of death among young people in the United States, deaths which occur in alcohol-related homicides, suicides, and accidents (by no means all of which occur in cars). Alcohol kills a total of 100,000 people annually, while tobacco kills between 350,000 and 500,000 more people each year, according to various estimates. These numbers are almost too large to comprehend."

Legalization most likely will end crimes associated with drug dealing and trafficking. But it will increase crimes committed by people under the influence of drugs, as more and more people use them. Overt crimes such as drug-related violence, murder, wife-beating, child abuse, sexual assault, driving while intoxicated, etc., will rise. And the emotional wreckage produced among children of drug abusers will equal and probably exceed that produced among children of alcoholics."

"Between 1972 and 1978, eleven states in this country decriminalized marijuana. Advocates who lobbied states in behalf of decriminalization insisted then that decriminalization would not increase use. But it did. During the decrim years, marijuana use rose 125 percent among high school seniors, 200 percent among older adults, and 240 percent among teenagers. Interestingly, marijuana use in this country peaked one year after the eleventh and final state decriminalized."

"Penalties against drug use have prevented and delayed millions of people from using alcohol and other drugs. People have a natural respect for the law, especially children and adolescents. According to the 1987 National High School Senior Survey, half of these students never used marijuana, 85 percent never used cocaine, and 99 percent never used heroin. Compare this with the same students who have never used tobacco (33 percent) and alcohol (8 percent). 6 Although illegal for minors, alcohol and tobacco are more acceptable drugs to use, and they are inexpensive and easy to obtain. It is clear that social tolerance and availability do contribute to an increase in drug use.

Our society must also consider the dangerously addictive nature of drugs. Only 10 percent of those who drink alcohol have problems; however, 75 percent of crack users become addicted.