It is time to declare a ceasefire. The war on drugs is a classic case of the solution being a bigger problem than the problem itself.

Now, before you attack me, let me state that I have never tried nor ever intend to try any drugs. This is not the ranting of some pot or crackhead. I would heartily recommend all people stay away from drugs.

This issue must be examined logically, though. We had 7.3 million people in our correctional system in 2007. That is 1 in 31 adults. That is triple the number of people in the system back in 1982. During that time frame, our nation has redoubled its efforts in the war on drugs.

We’ve gotten tough on crime, as politicians like to say, and now dole out longer, mandatory sentences for drug crimes. Federal mandatory sentencing guidelines set out by Congress in 1986 and 1988 take away the discretion of judges to decide what punishment is best suited for a particular drug offender based on the facts of a case.

Instead, federal judges are given concrete rules that determine the length of an offenders sentence based on the amount of drug sold and whether or not a firearm was involved. Some might deserve longer sentences, but many non-violent offenders could better served by being sent into drug rehab. Our prisons are overflowing, yet instead of addressing the problem, we continue to send non-violent drug offenders into their ranks.

If the goal is to lock as many people up as possible, then the war on drugs has been a total success. We account for 25 percent of the world’s prison population, yet only have five percent of the total world population. If the goal is to rehabilitate offenders and successfully re-integrate them into society, then the war on drugs is an unmitigated failure. A 1994 study shows that 67 percent of drug offenders are arrested again within three years of release from prison, up from 50 percent in 1983. We’ve got a revolving door of drug offenders coming in and out of prison.

The problem stretches beyond the United States. We serve as the goal line for a multi-billion dollar illegal drug trade that makes its way up from South and Central America and goes right to the heart of our cities, leaving behind it a wake of death and destruction at the hands of powerful drug lords.

Now, let’s imagine what would happen if we decided to legalize all drugs and treat them like we do cigarettes and alcohol (meaning regulating their manufacture, publicizing their dangerous side effects, restricting their use for certain activities like driving, and not allowing them to be sold to or used by those under 18).

Suddenly, these dangerous drugs are widely available at your local supermarket. Cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana are now sitting at your local drugstore in a locked case next to the cigarettes and beer.

The cost of these products will inevitably be cheaper than those purchased on the street. Almost overnight, the drug trade will disappear. The pot of gold waiting in the United States for Colombian drug lords will be gone, as will much of their power. The neighborhood meth lab ready to explode at any minute and take half the neighborhood with it will be gone, too.

The supply will be safety tested, eliminating contaminants common in illegally manufactured drugs. Drug users can cheaply buy clean needles to use in their habit, slowing the spread of HIV and other illnesses. The drugs will be taxed, creating a new revenue stream for local and state governments. I don’t want people using drugs, but they will anyway. At least now they could do so more safely.

The prison population would drop significantly, freeing up taxpayer resources. Non-violent drug offenders could be sent home or to rehabilitation facilities. Violent crimes would go down, as affordable drugs would eliminate the need for users to commit many of their money-related crimes.

What would we be left with in the wake of legalizing drugs? One huge drug problem, just like we have now. The difference is that our method of dealing with it would not cost billions of dollars and would not overflow our prison system.

Look at alcohol. We tried making that illegal. We ended up with many of the problems we are facing now with drugs; illegal manufacture and use and increased burden on the correctional system.

Instead, we legalized it and brought it out into the open. Many people still have an alcohol problem in this country, yet I think our current solution is better than making its use illegal.

Today we have support groups and rehab clinics ready to help alcohol abusers. With all the money we will save on prisons, we can increase our rehabilitation efforts for drug users. Make these open and free for anyone who is ready to get help.

Some might argue that by making drugs readily available, we will encourage more people to use them. However, cigarettes are widely available, but their use has been on a downturn for years through civic education about its risks. Per capita alcohol consumption has been going down since the 1980s. Legalizing drugs will eliminate the appeal of them for some people drawn to things forbidden, while education about these drugs at the point of purchase will increase public awareness about the danger involved.

We spent over $13 billion combating drugs in 2008. Throwing more money at law enforcement is not going to solve this problem. We need to stand down and try a new strategy focused not on locking people up for using drugs, but rather treating people who have this problem.

A solution that causes more problems than it solves is no solution at all. End the war on drugs.

Missouri State University provides more comforts than you can possibly imagine, and has more rules too. To help you get through the first few weeks, I’ve made of list the most important things I’m sure you may not know about:

Sincerely,

A girl who survived her first year of college at MSU

Part 1: The Basics

1. Turn in your room condition report to your Resident Assistant.

a. When you move in, you’ll get this long piece of paper with a bunch of little boxes for check marks and comments. Go to your room, fill it out and turn it back in!

2. Make sure you have a Zip card! You need it for almost everything. This new piece of plastic with your lovely face on it does the following:

a. Lets you eat. You have to swipe your card in order to get into the dining halls. The only other way is cash, and it’s five dollars.

b. Lets you check out stuff. Missouri State wants you to be cozy and clean, and you can check out tons of stuff like vacuums, pots and pans, movies, games, carts, fitness keys, and tools at the front desk of your residence hall.

c. Lets you check out books at the library. Whether you are a book worm or need to get extra materials for class, you need your zip card for the library (We have more than one on campus; go to Library.missouristate.edu for more info).

d. Lets you use the Plaster Sports Complex Fitness Center: at the PSC, the building right behind the track and on the second floor at the very end of the hall, you will find a fitness room just for students. You need to swipe your zip card to use it.

3. Your Access card and keys: treat those babies as if they are diamonds!

a. All Residence Halls lock at 7 p.m., and unless you bang on the door and show identification, you aren’t getting in.

b. Misplacing your access card costs you money. It is fifteen dollars to replace a lost access card and no, you can’t just go without one (if you lose your access card, go to your front desk of your res hall immediately!) If you have to replace your access card, the charges are billed to your account, so don’t try to pay at the front desk.

c. Losing a key is like pulling teeth. The residence hall has to have a professional come and do a core change and you are charged $10 for the key and $25 for the core change.

4. Information about your room:

a. You should have an internet jack just for you (you need an Ethernet cord for the jack. Don’t try to bring telephone wire).

b. That green box in your room is not for trash. People recycle here on campus, so fill it up and ask your RA were to dump it.

5. Read those lovely fliers and signs your RA has taken the time to hang up.

a. The fliers provide information about everything from mandatory floor meetings to yoga classes and free activities taking place on campus.

Part 2: The Rules

1. Your RA is not a monster!

a. Notice the door in your hallway covered with a million decorations? Unless there is a creepy person who loves to make name tags of themselves in bright colors and hang them on a random door, the person with a ton of door decks is most likely your RA and they are trained to assist you.

b. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, they have answers.

c. They have lived on campus for over a year and are familiar with many buildings and resources you need.

2. Know the rules, so you can avoid trouble.

a. Just because you’re new here, doesn’t mean you can’t become familiar with the policies, and some of them have harsh consequences if violated.

b. Don’t bring alcohol on campus. Not bringing alcohol on campus will save you a headache and the university a bunch of paperwork.

c. If you can’t fight that urge to slurp your beer in your suite, you should know the consequences:

i. First Violation: You will have to take a four-hour class that costs you money; $45.00, which goes towards alcohol education programs run by the Judicial Programs.

ii. Violation number two lands you a conference and a fine of $90.00.

iii. Violation number three hurts you more than you know. You will be put under probation and have to pay a fine of $135.00.

iv. Violation number four: kiss living in the residence halls goodbye. “You’re out of here!” for a semester.

3. Read the Guide to Residence Hall Living if you live on campus. Your RA will give you this lovely spiral book at your first floor meeting.

4. Have fun! We are here to learn, to live, to dream and to rock out our years while we can. Know the rules and stay safe.

The truth will set you free. These words have been used by many ideologies to promote their version of the truth. I get the impression that, in most cases, there is but one truth, even if several different groups with opposing ideas try to sell me their version.

What I saw recently in an anti-drug advertisement seemed to be more propaganda than truth, sort of reminiscent of the old Reefer Madness ads. The commercial features a group of losers offering a responsible young man some marijuana. The Centers for Disease Control says over 30 percent of college students have used marijuana in the last year. One treatment website says nearly 40 percent of American adults have tried the drug. Can they all be losers?

Truth can be an uncomfortable thing. In this case, nearly a century-long, multi-billion dollar campaign to tell Americans the evil of marijuana use may not only be deceitful but, according to a 2008 ABC report, may have increased use in other, more harmful drugs.

Therein lies one of the biggest lies. Marijuana is classified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule I drug, right alongside its brothers like LSD, heroin, and PCP. Interestingly enough, cocaine and Ritalin are both classified as less-severe Schedule II drugs. That’s right: while doctors and parents freely hand out Ritalin to our kids, the drug schedule suggests cocaine might not be so bad either. Please, though, watch out for that marijuana. It might make you kill your family with an ax.

Like so many other behaviors, we have somehow crossed morality with substance abuse. It has always been a weak link in my opinion. Though not a Bible reader, I can appreciate ideas like “Do unto others,” and the Golden-Rule. One can probably be under the influence of marijuana and keep true to these tenets. Under the influence of alcohol, any 21-year old can legally buy in a store? Seems many acts of violence have been committed that way.

This is why I have never understood America’s inability to teach kids the truth. Tell a kid something bad will happen if he uses a curse word, and he quickly learns not to trust you. He will say the word, and often times, because it’s a group of letters and sounds just like other words, nothing bad happens. Why not teach him about respect and politeness instead?

Substance use is a lifestyle choice, not a morality issue. If laws were always moral, the tobacco that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, and the alcohol that kills tens of thousands more, would be illegal (along with so many of the prejudicial laws this country has seen and continues to see today). Instead, we’ve picked marijuana as the scapegoat. Not only that, but we use overkill to drive the point home by falsely categorizing it alongside much more dangerous drugs.

But it’s a gateway drug, right? No more a gateway than anything else. Did you know that 100 percent of all hard drug users drink water also? Most drink milk.  Many eat meat. Are these gateway substances? No, it is the natural progression. Some Americans do not drink, but some do. For many, the drink is not enough. Others want a mild alternative. Marijuana has long been the answer. For some, this is still not enough, but that decision would have been reached if marijuana had not been in the picture. The fault for hard drug use hardly lies with anything consumed prior to that.

Marijuana use is just unhealthy, right? Probably. Most things we put in our bodies these days are. But unhealthier than fast food, tobacco, or alcohol? Morgan Spurlock ate fast food for 30 straight days in the documentary Supersize Me. Comedian Doug Benson pulled a similar feat in Super High Me, a documentary where he did not use marijuana for 30 days, then smoked the drug continually for 30 days before completing tests he had performed while sober. The results: nothing socially or medically profound in the tests before using or while using. The same could not be said about Spurlock’s film.

The applications of these myths can be costly. Despite an underage DUI arrest, Michael Phelps became an American hero winning eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics. Kelloggs, maker of Wheaties and the Frosted Flakes that in no way have played a role in diabetes or obesity pandemics in American children, casually overlooked the DUI because money was to be made. After a photo of Phelps with a bong hit the world media, Kelloggs and many Americans alike came out against Phelps. Hardly an everyday example, but certainly an illustration on just how powerful the attitude against marijuana can be.

Don’t hit girls. Hold the door for others. Be nice. Just a few direct lifestyle choices that work. Maybe someday “don’t do drugs (except those legal or about to be legal)” can be added to that list so we can avoid all these lies and embarrassingly bad campaigns.