Ms. Tandy

I was just glancing through the DEA's website when I came across Karen P. Tandy's description and I started thinking about her involvement in the drug war. Ms. Tandy is the DEA Administrator who was appointed the position by President George W. Bush in 2003. In the first paragraph of her biography it shows the percentage of change that she has made in the fight against drugs. It states, "Under Ms. Tandy’s leadership, DEA investigations resulted in criminal charges against 87 percent of the most wanted drug trafficking leaders, an 82 percent increase in the number of dismantled priority drug trafficking organizations, and a 400 percent increase in the seizure of drug proceeds and related assets, with a record breaking $3.75 billion in seized drug assets and revenue denied to traffickers in a two year period from 2004-2006."
This tidbit of information made me think about why this number has increased so much. It is hard for me to believe that Ms. Tandy has made these percentages increase just by her inspirations. I don't think her involvement has helped the DEA seize $3.75 billion in drug assets and revenue denied. In my opinion, I think this number is so high because drug use itself has increased. The more people use drugs, the more the DEA has the ability and chance to catch them.
This is leads me to why I can't stand the drug war and the people behind the drug war, especially the woman leading it, Ms. Tandy. She is taking this number increase as a victory towards eliminating drug use. But in actuality this number increase is evidence of increased drug use. The drug war is a lost cause because people will always do drugs just like they will always drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. The only thing the drug war does is make people do illegal things to get what they want. Marijuana smokers are not bad people, but with the help of the DEA they are considered criminals. There are so many people surrounding us in our every day lives who smoke marijuana and they are definitely not criminals, they are good people.