LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

"Liberals have long had a moral problem with expanding the war on drugs. In fact, most liberals say that it makes sense to contract the war on drugs by focusing on the arrests of large scale drug dealers as opposed to small-time users. The general idea is, of course, a correct one. No one could legitimately argue that the occasional user of an illegal drug is as morally culpable as the regular supplier."

Thus wrote Mike Adams in yesterday's Townhall.com. His column actually dealt with the feminists on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilminton, and not with the war on drugs. While I usually agree with Mike's views, I must take exception to his statement: No one could legitimately argue that the occasional user of an illegal drug is as morally cupable as the regualr supplier. I can make a legitimate argument to the contrary.

There are millions of "occasional" users of illegal drugs in this country. I maintain that the occasional users, together with the regular users, are more culpable than the dealers who supply them with the illegal drugs they crave. Has Mike Adams, a strong proponent of capitalism, forgotten about the law of supply and demand? When there is no demand for a product there will be no supplier for that product!

The insatiable hunger for "recreational" drugs in this country is a shameful reflection of a society gone wrong. There is really no excuse for it. Our drug poblems arose out of the anti-Vietnam War youth movement and its cultural revolution. The demand for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, meth and other mind-altering drugs has been strong ever since it spread from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district throughout the land.

No other country comes close to approaching the high level of demand for illicit drugs found in America. Marijuana has become the leading cash crop in California, Kentucky and some other states. The idiotic legalization of "medical marijuana" in California has served to increase demand and made millionaires out of a whole bunch of "pot pharmacists." We are funding the drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia. Were it not for the millions of American recreational durg users, there would be no drug cartels, no drug wars in Mexico, and no revolutionary armed forces in Columbia.

So Mike, please rethink your position on those occasional drug users. Don't tell us they are not as morally culpable as drug dealers. It is the law of supply and demand that keeps drug dealers in business and the occasional user plays a major role in the demand for illegal drugs.