Indiana has found another area where we rank high – drugs. In fact, we are ranked #5 by a recent report using “Drug Use & Addiction, Law Enforcement, and Drug Health Issues & Rehab as measurements. As the report concludes, red states seem to suffer from drug usage and addiction more than blue states.
Here’s a map where you can see where your favorite state is situated:
Source: WalletHub
We’ve been at war with drugs since the 1970’s but we are losing. Even legitimate Pharma companies have become legalized drug dealers. Also, while our military has been guarding poppy fields in Afghanistan, the USA has experienced a heroin epidemic. No folks, it’s not a coincidence.
What about the private prison industry? Do you think there is a coincidence that they are mostly situated in red states which fair worse in this report?
One other notion to consider is the costs associated with our police forces and prison systems. How many drug associated prisoners are we housing? Are our “conservative” practices toward drugs costing us more or even working?
If we look at Indiana, the answer is the drug war isn’t working so we should be looking at alternative approaches. However, as we all know, there are many powerful lobbying interests preventing Indiana from taking any steps toward legalizing marijuana or eliminating private prison populations.
