Buying and using illegal drugs is not a victimless crime.  It has negative consequences that can touch the lives of people around the world.  When Americans spend money on illegal drugs, they are providing financial support to groups that use violence and terror as a way of doing business.  Drug fueled violence in Mexico over the last two years has cost at least four thousand lives by most estimates, financed by recreational users with disposable income in this country.

Last week, the Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, and Reuters covered the role that drug money plays in funding violent drug cartels in Mexico.  Here's an excerpt from the Dallas Morning News report:

"American drug users are paying ruthless Mexican kingpins nearly $14 billion annually for their meth, heroin, cocaine and especially marijuana – monies that are helping fund an unprecedented bloody turf war that's threatening Mexican institutions, the White House drug czar said.

John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana, not heroin or cocaine, is the "bread and butter," "the center of gravity" for Mexican drug cartels that every year smuggle tons of it through the porous U.S.-Mexico border."

According to our estimate, illicit-drug purchases in the United States contribute more than $13.8 billion to Mexican traffickers.   The majority of that income comes from marijuana sales, which accounts for 61 percent of that income, or $8.5 billion, eclipsing the potential revenue from cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine combined.  Estimated revenue for cocaine is $3.9 billion, methamphetamine $1 billion, and heroin less than $400 million.

Despite the large amount of funding deriving from the U.S. demand for marijuana, however, youth use of the drug is down substantially.  According to the largest survey on youth drug use in the United States, the number of American high school students using marijuana dropped by 25 percent between 2001 and 2007.  Overall youth drug use has also declined 24 percent over the same period of time. 

detoxify ready clean Information and Drug Detection Times.

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