Art Benavie

My friend Art Benavie has a splendid column in today's Durham Herald.

On March 24, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano disclosed that the US military "has been working with the Mexican military in efforts against the drug cartels."

Are we slipping into a third war? If so, we are courting disaster.

Felipe Calderon, who became president of Mexico in December 2006, has deployed 50,000 soldiers and federal police in the fight against mob-controlled drug cartels The result has been a skyrocketing death toll in Mexico, with more than 22,000 drug-related deaths in the past three and a half years; most Mexicans feel the government is losing the war.

The noted UNC economist, Art Benavie, knows what he's talking about when it comes to the war on drugs. His latest book uncovers its absurdity at all levels of analysis, before it zeroes in on a conservative cost of this waste of national resources. According to Dr. Benavie's analysis, prosecuting the war on drugs is like flushing more than $70 billion dollars a year down the toilet.

To get a glimpse of what that looks like on the streets of North Carolina, I asked the team at MyReporter.com in Wilmington if they could help me understand the costs of the war in New Hanover County. Here's the response they received by email from Charles Smith, of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department.

From our monthly Political Salon: Guest speaker is Art Benavie.

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1. The war on drugs does not work. Mission impossible.

2. It causes untold damage.

Every month my wonderful wife hosts a political salon in our home. Tonight's guest speaker is Art Benavie.