The savage drug wars taking place in Mexico especially on the northern border with America, has brought into sharp focus the growing menace of the drug trade to the United States. It should also focus attention on the American appetite for drugs, what is fueling that appetite, and how on the demand side that appetite can be curbed.

The inconvenient truth that many would not wish to admit is that we are a nation of drug addicts. In terms of expenditure on illicit drugs and on the illegal use of legal drugs (as in prescription medications) no other nation on the face of the earth can outspend. America singularly is responsible for the promotion and maintenance and survival of the multi-billion dollar drug trade across the globe. This is the inconvenient truth that we would rather deny.

On her recent trip to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to the truth of America's relationship to the drug trade. She asserted that the US demand for illegal drugs and the illegal trade in guns that attends it, is largely responsible for the drug war that is now being waged in Mexico. There is the strong fear that it will not be long before this violence spills over into American cities.

No one can deny the accuracy of Mrs. Clinton's remarks. She was not only brave in making it, but spoke the truth about a matter about which many Americans would prefer to live in denial. The sad truth is that American drug policy over the years has failed. The only people who have succeeded over the years of this ongoing trade are the traffickers and their allied supports. They have become more ingenuous and successful at what they do while governments have remained impotent in making any real dent in their operations.

Mrs. Clinton did not elaborate on this, but now that she has admitted that America's appetitie for drugs has become a real national security issue, what does the government plan to do about it? What is to be done about the gargantuan American appetite for drugs? What is it in the American psyche and emotional makeup that contributes to this huge craving for an escape from reality which drugs provide?

The answers to these questions are obviously not easy, but they have to be asked. One of the reasons for the failure of American drug policy over the years is that there has been a greater emphasis placed on the supply side of the equation than the demand. We have concentrated our efforts on stopping drugs coming into the country while ignoring any real emphasis on the demand side-why Americans have such an insatiable appetite for drugs of all description.

Although the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) has reported that drug use in the various categories of hard and prescription drugs has remained relatively stable between 2006 and 2007, the level of drug addiction in the population is still frightening. While illicit drug use among the nation's adolescents has declined, illicit use of prescription drugs (especially oxycontin and vicodin) between the 18-25 age groups has risen.
The bottom-line is that drug addiction continues to be a serious menace to the health of our society. Now it has become a national security concern more than it has ever been. Our policy makers seem not to be getting the message of the risks to society posed by an increasing population of drug addicts. Hardly any mention was made of it in the last presidential election campaign. In many states throughout the country subsidies to drug programs often become the first casualties of any termination of funding when things get hard in the economy as presently obtains.

We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and wait for the problem to blow away. Every American that uses an illegal drug must be told that he or she is contributing to the demise of America. Directly or indirectly he or she is contributing to every sale that is made and every gun that is exchanged for drugs. Furthermore, they are unwitting accomplices in the corruption of national institutions and the undermining of law and order in the society. They are contributors to the wrecking of families and the cauterization of the promise of our young.

They must be told that if there are problems that may force them down the road of addiction they must be educated to the alternatives such as counseling and other forms of therapeutic intervention. Government policy must be aimed toward supporting such programs increasingly with grants. There are alternatives and part of dealing with the demand side is to present and educate people to the alternatives that exist.

The president must use the bully pulpit of the presidency to talk more to this issue of drug addiction and encourage people to the available alternatives. Finally, drug education must and its menace to society must become a viable part of the curriculum of our schools starting from grade 8 to grade 12. These are not panaceas but this writer believes that they are steps in the right direction in helping to stem the demand for illicit drugs. It is time that we all become addicted to the truth, however inconvenient, of the danger that we face from the illicit drug trade.

Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard

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Unprecedented crises bring unprecedented opportunities. This is true for individuals as it is for organizations and nations. Even his worst detractors will agree that President Obama is faced with a crisis that no other president has had to face in modern times. Perhaps never since the Civil War have we faced such great perils as a nation.

And this is not just a national problem but a worldwide one. The entire world is depending on the USA to pull it out of the worst recession that it has seen in fifty years. If America succeeds in putting its own house in order this will augur well for the recovery of the world economy.

The unprecedented nature of the crisis has provided opportunities for this new president that was not afforded any before him in recent times in getting his agenda moved through Congress. He has the ammunition to do this. The largest banks and financial houses, once the bastions of American financial stability, are teetering on the brink of collapse. The Democrats now control the White House and both houses of Congress. The Republicans are in disarray. If the their fulminations at the recent CPAC gathering is anything to go by, it will be a long time before that party can be considered seriously to take over the reins of power in the country. Finally, the president continues to enjoy a high job performance rating. The honeymoon continues, but people are willing to give him a chance to use the opportunity he has been given to wisely to govern in their best interests.

This is where the rub is. In the big stimulus bill that was just passed the president is hoping to give a needed boost to the economy. The Budget that will soon make its round through Congress is the biggest that has been passed by any president in the history of the United States. Needless to say, this has the Republicans hopping mad. They believe the country is going socialist. Not only is this charge not true but it is disingenuous. It does not account for the reckless fiscal deficit that was racked up by the Bush Administration and which, for the first six years of a Republican Congress, was rubber stamped by the Republicans. Furthermore the Obama administration has only continued the policy of the Bush Administration in spending huge sums to prop up failing financial entities. In other words, it is the Republicans in power that started the country on the path to socialism.

The president ardently believes that the policies he is putting in place and which the budget underpins, are good for the country at this time. He seems to be motivated by the Powell military doctrine of throwing a massive amount of resources at the key sectors of the economy that he has identified. Only in this case no clear exit strategy is apparent. We hear of trillions of dollars to be spent but no one is quite clear, not even our best economists, as to whether these dollars will bring the desired results for the country. And all of this is being done in a hurry without, as far as one can see, the benefit of calm, reasoned study.

The president is engaged in a delicate balancing act. He would well be cautioned that in the unprecedented opportunities that have been opened to him to spend, that he approaches the matter with sober realism. Can the economy withstand the spending shocks that might be generated? There may be the need to do a "spending stress" test to ascertain whether the economy can withstand all this spending that the president proposes.

Rev. Dr. Raulston Nembhard

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