themselves are all involved in the issue. Even teachers and educators become involved when violence on campus or in schools comes as the result of drug use. There are billions of dollars in costs associated with the drug use/crime problem. Drug use alone costs American taxpayers a fortune from a variety of services, treatments and legalities involved in handling the drug user/criminal-the least of which are medical costs. A study conducted by the Drug Abuse Warning Network in 1996 found that “…between 1992 and 1995, emergency room cases connected to marijuana use rose by 96 percent, while those connected to heroin and cocaine related hospital visits exceeded 62,000 and 121,000, respectively. The annual economic cost of illegal drugs is $66.9 billion. Besides these costs to the health of our people, there are more than one million arrests each year, and there is an undisputed link between violent crime and drug abuse,” (Maginnis, 1995: 3).
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