One curious fact about the so called war on drugs is that it makes hard drugs more available to kids than they would be if they were legal.

Worse, the war exposes them to the criminal subcultures, drug dealers and gangs that create many of America’s public safety issues. Not only do  drug dealers get involved with otherwise plain folk who would normally never be involved with crime, but they target teens and kids too. Take a look at Weeds on cable for a cinematic example.

If young people get addicted instead working their issues out at home, they are often tossed face first into the meat grinder we call a justice system. It rarely brings good results

Let me share a few stats from the CASA survey noted on marketwatch.com.

• Half of 16 and 17-year-olds say that among their age, group smoking marijuana is more common than smoking cigarettes.
• Marijuana continues to be easier to buy than beer: 23 percent of teens find it easiest to buy compared to 15 percent who find beer easiest to buy.

Why is this?

Its simple; supply and demand. Because drug dealers are already looking at serious jail time if caught, even the threat of sentence enhancements (which can often be plead away anyway) aren’t going to matter. What matters to dealers are profits and the risk of getting caught. Now, I’d estimate the odds of being caught at about the same or slightly less than the odds of selling to an adult. Since the money is just as good, or better, why not?

To contrast lets compare illegal drug sales to a legal drug, in this case booze

Booze “dealers” are legally licensed operating run out of stores. They have many incentives not to sell to kids like jail time, loss of revenue, fines, and bad press. Since they are in a legal business, these things can’t be considered the normal costs of doing business; you don’t expect to go to jail.

Now sure, I know teens can use fake IDs, but no store will sell to a 10-year-old. And since there are no bootleggers on the corner, the entire black market is limited. Teens aren’t exposed to organized crime if they drink under age.

This also means when underage minors want to drink, they have to steal from the store (risking jail time), take some from their parents (risking parental wrath), or get someone to buy booze for them (which risks legal trouble for both parties). Supply is limited – there is no pusher with a huge supply of dope on the corner. What would be a foray into an illegal market if we’re talking about marajuna instead becomes a diversion of a smaller supply of legal drugs to those who can’t legally purchase them. Clearly, this is still not the optimal outcome, but it’s better than the alternative.

Now, if drugs were legal, adults could buy and use them as they wish, get help if addicted without risk, and more importantly, the now licensed, taxed, and above board businesses would have plenty of incentives not to sell drugs to kids.

Now, to be clear, changing drug laws won’t stop some beer stolen from the liquor cabinet, or stop kids abusing their parents’ prescriptions, or stop teens from getting their hands on pot seeds. Only mom and dad can stop this behavior. Still, if drugs were legal, there would be a lot of positives for youth:

• Fewer people will want to sell hard drugs to kids
• Even when kids do get hold of drugs and get high, at least they won’t need to be exposed to criminal gangs in the process.
• Without the fear of jail, kids can come forward and get help a lot more easily.

And maybe, just maybem, if we aren’t so busy going broke locking people up, we can put together some tools that really reduce drug use.

Adam Benjamin Prosper was born in Colorado and now lives in Southern California. He is a blue collar guy, freelancer writer and occasional trouble maker. A. B. believes in honor, freedom, truth, justice, the environment and all that jazz. Most importantly, he believes in us the American People and our limitless capacity to make America great if we try. He blogs at http://www.abprosper.com

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