As time has unraveled itself through history there has always been a substance that has appeared from the shadows. Drugs is that substance, but drugs are not just pills or powders they are any addiction that effects one's body physiologically. The War on Drugs is one of the most talked about topics among society today. This war has many sides to it and that is why I find it so fascinating. Like any truly interesting topic there is always multiple sides. Ever since I can remember I was told constantly how bad drugs were for you and how I should never consider using any type of illegal drug, and believe it or not I listened. I know many people that have encountered drugs and either hated it or liked it they gave in to the hype, and peer pressure. To be considered qualified to just talk about the War on Drugs all you have to do is have access to the internet or television and simply be at least a human being in today's world. 

"Prohibition has not only failed in its promises but actually created additional serious and disturbing social problems throughout society. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic but more. There is not less crime, but more. ... The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished" (Branson). In 1925, H.L. Mencken wrote this plea and as a German-American Journalist he is definitely credible. To this day Mencken is still right, he not only does a great job of summarizing this article but also a phenomenal job of summarizing our efforts on the War on Drugs. Richard Branson, one of Britain's highest profile billionaires, wrote an article entitled "War on drugs a trillion-dollar failure." Branson uses his article to discuss not just his opinions about the War on Drugs but facts as well. One fact that caught my eye was that if the global drug trade was a country it would be among the top 20 economies in the world. Plus in 2005 the United Nations discovered that the whole global illegal drug trade was worth $320 billion. Branson is more than qualified to write this article since he is not only a businessman, investor, philanthropist and founder of the Virgin Group, he is a highly knowledgeable in the world's news and economy. 

"Let's be blunt: it's time to end the drug war" is the opening heading for a Forbes article written by Professor Art Carden. Carden discusses how absurd the War on Drugs is and he addresses a textbook he actually uses in his class. He uses Modern Principles of Economic written by Cowen and Tabarrok to introduce economics to his classes and he uses an interesting quote from the textbook to defer what he is discussing. "The more effective prohibition is at raising costs, the greater are drug industry revenues. So, more effective prohibition means that drug sellers have more money to buy guns, pay bribes, fund the dealers, and even research and develop new technologies in drug delivery (like crack cocaine). It's hard to beat an enemy that gets stronger the more you strike against him or her" (Carden). This short quote briefly summarizes what Carden is trying to say and it gives him even more credibility and it even provides more logic to back up his theories. As being an Associate Professor of Economics at Samford University, a Research Fellow with the Oakland, California-based Independent Institute, a Senior Fellow with the Beacon Center of Tennessee, and a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, Art Carden is obviously more than qualified to write about the War on Drugs and how it effects our economy.

On the other hand, there are some that believe that drugs are ruthless but they are a "wild success." An article about "10 Ways the War on Drugs is a Wild Success" describes 10 effective ways the War on Drugs has been necessary to our economy. Military-industrial profits, huge boon to private prisons, prevents higher unemployment rates, suppresses minority populations, drives up prices, justifies gun laws, protects big monopolies, allows proxy armies, keeps banks filled with cash, and funds CIA Black Ops are the 10 reasons. Eric Blair, an activist on the subject of the War on Drugs wrote this article to show how the number of terrible things that have been said about the War on Drugs are equal to the number of successful things. I am not sure if I agree with him entirely but Blair does make valid points in his 10 reasons why the War on Drugs is a success. I did find one of his reasons, military-industrial profits, to be interesting. Blair uses one of President Richard Nixon's quotes after the Vietnam War, Nixon declared drugs "Public Enemy Number 1." When living in a world where enemies were needed to keep a constant funding of weapons something needed to be done to defend ourselves so domestic armies were created to combat the illegal drug trade, producing consistent cash flow to weapons manufacturers.  This is a win-win for both sides. Eric Blair is a writer for the Activist Post and is an activist for the War on Drugs and what it has done and is doing to our world. (Blair) 

This question is arguable simply because it has so many sides to the argument, and so many opinions and facts to go along with it. Most sources say that the War on Drugs is bad but there are some that say it may be necessary to our economy. Some revisions I may need to make include: being clearer with my research topic in order to be able to find the best sources and answers for my paper. I also might need to pick one side of the argument instead of two.

