As described in the novel The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, the course of any trend, movement, social behavior and even the spread of A virus has a general trend line that essentially looks like a parabola with 3 main critical points. Any trend line starts from zero, grows until it crosses the first tipping point, and then spreads like wildfire. Thereafter, the trend surges until it reaches its carrying capacity (Galdwell, 2000). Then the trend gradually declines before reaching the next swing and suddenly falls out of favor and out of memory. Gladwell defines tipping points as the “magical moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, spikes, and spreads like wildfire” (Gladwell, 2000). An important application is how tipping points and trendlines apply to the current state. and the future course of the war on drugs. According to Webster's Dictionary, a war is "the organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is considered dangerous or evil" (Merriam-Weber Online Dictionary, n.d.). Most people agree that drugs and alcohol are bad and at least potentially dangerous, especially in cases of drug addiction. Alcohol, drugs, and synthetic substances are associated with crime, violence, moral decadence, brain damage, higher school dropout rates, a host of health problems, and myriad other social problems. As a society, Americans are paying a heavy price for drug addiction. The bill for tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug abuse costs Americans more than $600 billion annually in areas such as crime, unemployment, lost productivity and the cost of health care ( National Institute on Drug Abuse, nd). Based on these facts, this is a... middle of paper ...... M., & Barr, CS (2010). Alcohol response and alcohol consumption in adolescent rhesus macaques: life history and genetic influences. Alcohol, 44(1), 67. doi:10.1016/j.alcohol.2009.09.034 Global Commission on Drug Policy (2011). Global Commission on Drug Policy Report on the War on Drugs, June 2011. Retrieved from http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/themes/gcdp_v1/pdf/Global_Commission_Report_English.pdfWar [ Def. 2b]. (nd). Merriam-Webster Online. In Merriam Webster. Retrieved March 23, 2014 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war>.West, SL and O'Neal, KK (2004). The effectiveness of the DARE project results revisited. American Journal of Public Health. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.6.1027Sinha, R. (2009). Chronic stress, drug use and vulnerability to addiction. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1141, 105-130. doi:10.1196/annals.1441.030