Only recently have we dared admit the cultural ignorance and rejection of previous military counsel that were responsible for the national disaster we call Vietnam. A monster gnawing in the belly of the human spirit impels us to abandon both cherished values and common sense. Like Don Quixote we depart from reality to pursue imagined demons and leave naught but carnage and confusion behind. The sated monster laughs at our folly and awaits the next imagined peril. It is not true that illegal drug use is the nation's most serious health problem.
Voluntary obesity is.
More death and economic loss are caused by the consumption of legal drugs, principally alcohol and tobacco, than all illegal drugs. Over 100 million Americans drank alcohol last month. Over 50 million smoked tobacco. Nine million Americans smoked marijuana last month, 1.2 million ingested cocaine during the same period and fewer than 6 million used it within the past year. The figures for heroin and nonprescribed amphetamine abuse are so small they are not even in the same statistical league, much less the same ballpark.