The Centers for Disease Control says 175 people a day (64,000 people a year) are dying from drug addiction. Yet we still have those who believe that ending the war on drugs would end gun violence. Well they’re partially right; obviously they never had a family member or a friend die from a drug overdose. Substituting one law for another is not the answer. Legalizing drugs would actually increase deaths and overwhelm rehab facilities. It has been reported that heroin is the leading cause of death, followed by the misuse of prescription drugs. So what is the answer?
Ninety percent of the gun violence and homicides in Chicago, police say, come from drug gangs. Chicago police also believe that 100 percent of the drugs there come across the U.S.’ southern border from Mexico. A tremendous amount of money is made selling these drugs. The U.S. government says illegal drug sales amount to $100 billion a year, with $20 billion of that going to the drug cartels. The competition is immense, so drug gangs see it as in their interest to eliminate their competitors.
So where does the money come from? Mostly from crimes like home invasion, store and bank robberies, muggings, prostitution, human trafficking and stealing from criminals’ own friends and family.
The CDC reported that 21,175 gun deaths were related to suicide and 11,208 were due to homicides. The increase is directly related to drugs and drug gang violence. So when some people talk about guns being the problem they seem to ignore that 64,000 people a year are dying from drugs.
My question is why? How about looking at the real issue? The fact is, drugs want you dead or miserable one way or another and it will take either.
The Surgeon General’s Office says illegal drug abuse costs U.S. taxpayers $442 billion a year. Do you think that might pay for better border security and save American lives? Why aren’t the news media talking more about that when we address our spending? That $442 billion is a staggering amount of money that impacts the U.S. economy. The federal cost of the war on drugs is $15 billion a year. State and local governments spend at least $25 billion on this effort. And in 40 years we will have spent $1 trillion. And then there’s the heart-wrenching loss of life!
Given these statistics, doesn’t it make sense that we would see the direct correlation regarding gun violence and drug abuse? The ample data back this up. So the real problem of gun violence is a drug problem, not gun ownership!
Stephen Changary
Elizabeth City
