Drugs deadlier than guns, firearms: Where is the War on Drugs really fought? The answer will CREEP you out

Prescription drugs, heroin identified as major killers.

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, with 46,471 people dying in 2013, the latest year for which data is available.  But there is one thing that nobody realizes about the War on Drugs, that it's being fought inside your body.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Despite the outcry over guns, and the commonly discussed dangers of automobile accidents, the leading cause of injury deaths in the United States is drug overdose. The biggest culprits were prescription drugs and heroin, with various other illegal drugs making up the remaining half.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that in 2013, a total of 35,369 people died in auto accidents and 33,636 died from firearm related injuries.

The Drug Enforcement Agency made clear that the major threats were prescription drugs and heroin.

The War on Drugs, as it is commonly called, conjures images of special forces operatives and police clashing with drug cartel soldiers in South American jungles, but this is a myth. The war on drugs isn't fought south of the border. We know because cartel shipments of drugs pass through our borders unimpeded. Not only has this been revealed in exposes from former border patrol agents, but the total lack of busts suggests that our border security is either very relaxed, inept, or corrupt.

Nor is the War on Drugs really fought on our streets. Even in the urban neighborhoods of Chicago, where many Sinaloa cartel shipments land, the vast majority of those drugs reach their final destination, which is inside the bodies of the people who use them.

That is where the war on drugs is fought, inside your body.

Prescription drugs are half of the problem. Although prescription drugs are rigorously tested, we tend to administer them liberally, pumping our bodies full of powerful substances that mask, force or trick our organs into doing what we want them to do. Over time, these substances build up in our bodies and they react with one another, causing unknowable impacts and trickling into our public water supply as we slowly pass them out of our systems.

The end result is that every American has become a drug user, and there's little appreciation for the fact.

We're often taught to rely on medications to feel better when sometimes time and rest are all that's needed. We turn to medications when we really need to talk to a professional or to attend church. However, drugs are a multi-billion dollar industry and the marketing budgets of drug manufacturers are very high.

Most Americans take drugs on a daily basis. Virtually all consume some kind of medication on a semi-regular basis. Many Americans have also shared pills or tried using illegal drugs for recreation.

Drugs are not the panacea they are made out to be. Who needs the cure when the cure is deadlier than any disease?