What can you do with 3 billion dollars? With that much money you would be able to get four round trips to the moon not one, not two, but four trips. For the same price that the government spends on the Drug Enforcement Administration, you would be able to do what took all of the top scientist in the world twelve years to do in a day four times. Yes, this is the amount of money the DEA spends on preventing drugs from coming into the great United States of America and put dealers in jail.

It sounds like a wonderful idea to prevent all drugs from coming into the United States, and I think we all agree that it would be nice if no one was addicted to drugs. The problem with this is that people are still addicted, even after we spend funds on educating people about how dangerous it is. Addicts are the reason that drugs will never leave the United Stated, it's simple supply and demand. If people want it, people will get it. So, if we know that people will do drugs regardless of prevention efforts, why do we spend so much on the DEA? This is an especially interesting question when the DEA only has a one percent efficiency rate of preventing drugs from coming into the United States.

If we use the same rate of return of one percent for every 3 billion dollars, the United States would have to spend at least 300 billion dollars to stop ninety-nine percent of the drugs from coming into the United States. This is about two fifths of the military budget. Clearly we can't do that. It’s unrealistic and just way too much for the people to pay for through their taxes. Exorbitant tax rates is not the answer. We would lose a lot of money, and the worst part is, it wouldn’t be efficient.

This inefficiency is why we need to defund the DEA. We simply don't need them, especially because there are much cheaper and safer ways to deal with drugs in the United States. The legalization of drugs would create a huge revenue stream for the county while creating new American businesses that will supply jobs for people who need them.

The first thing we have to do is legalize many of the illegal drugs like cannabis, cocaine, meth, heroine, and lsd. The next thing we have to do is treat them like tobacco, it has to be sold and advertised the exact same way. Also, if we treat it like tobacco we can make many of the more dangerous chemicals that go into the drugs illegal, allowing the government to control the drugs even tighter than they are today. This will make the drugs as safe as they can possibly be. The government will be able to regulate the drugs, and like cigarettes, all sales would be taxable which would help it to pay for itself. Even with their terrible history, I think that it's better to know exactly what you have in a drug rather than taking something that has something dangerous in it.

We also have to make sure that we have anti-drug commercials and informational classes in school. Many states already have a mandatory health course, so that's almost done, but we have to make sure that we make anti-use ads just like we do with anti-smoking ads. The best part about this is that it will come right out of the drug companies just like we do with cigarettes.

Also, the amount of money being raised out of taxes would be tremendous. In Arizona alone, a state that has legalized cannabis for recreational purposes, we find that it is raking in 72 million dollars every year, and this number is expected to grow. If every state legalized cannabis, and they make 72 million dollars, the United States would gross 3.6 billion dollars per year. Further, they would save 3 billion because they stopped spending that on the DEA. This is just for cannabis. Imagine how much this would be if we legalized every drug. This money could be used to better Americans in many ways such as helping addicts instead of jailing them, or we could just try to pay of that national debt. Also the new supply of drugs would allow Americans to create companies devoted to the distribution and selling of drugs to the people of the United States. These companies would need workers in order to move and produce their product giving Americans a new place to work.

Many people say that the DEA and laws that prevent drugs from coming into the United States of America are good because they prevent people from getting drugs and discovering them in the first place. To this I say that one percent isn't affecting the amount of drugs in the United States at all. I can sadly personally say that if I really wanted to, I could get drugs whenever and wherever I wanted. It's just too rampant in America. If the DEA really did work, I would completely agree with those who side with keeping the DEA and I would be writing this article about how we need to increase funds to the DEA. However, that is simply not possible, which is a shame, but that's how life works. This is why instead of prevention we should put it right in people's faces while telling them the truth about what this can do to you and how it might kill you or how it will destroy your life.

Sadly, people are still using drugs, even knowing the risks involved. However, it seems as if it is a normal part of life. People will always seek mind altering substances for either recreational and/or self-medicating purposes. Thus, the best thing for us to do is to make it as safe as possible, which can prevent untimely deaths, and while we do this, we can create more jobs for a sluggish economy. In conclusion, it is clear that we have to find alternatives to continuing to pour money into the DEA. It’s inefficiency is unacceptable.