ldredge 9). For these addicts, attainment of drugs takes precedence over possible jail time. The attainment of these drugs is a problem for these addicts. Considering that the entirety of drug trade is done on an illegal black market, prices are astronomical. A typical heroin addict is spending 200 dollars a day on drugs (Horrowitz 2). Many of these addicts are at a point where they are so addicted, that they can no longer function in a workplace environment. In order to obtain narcotics the user will often turn to crime. In a 2 1/2-year study of Detroit crime, Lester P. Silverman, former associate director of the National Academy of Sciences' Assembly of Behavior and Social Sciences, found that a 10 percent increase in the price of heroin alone produced an increase of 3.1 percent total property crimes in poor nonwhite neighborhoods. Armed robbery jumped 6.4 percent and simple assault by 5.6 percent throughout the city (Miller 3). The street crime, which most political candidates pledge to clean up, is a direct result of the measures which the United States has taken in order to make it a so called better place. The War on Drugs costs the United States billions of dollars. Fifteen billion dollars are fed into the federal drug control budget annually (Norml). This money would be better spent on schools, roads, and other things that the people of America could use. Instead it is spent on prisons, police forces, and other government institutions. The reason why people become involved in the drug trade is no different than why people became involved in the bootlegging trade during prohibition, money. There are phenomenal amounts of cash which can be earned in the drug trade. In 1984 a kilogram of cocaine sold for $4,000 in Columbia. That same kilogram sold for $300,000 on the streets of the United States (Scott 82). That is a 75% increase in the price of the product. With a little organization you can create an intertwined network of buyers...
