There is a fair amount of discussion going around the web about the drug war. Essentially, about how bad it is and how now, with a new "progressive [scare quotes]" president we have a chance to at least modify it.
The drug war combined with the (oh I'm sorry that should be: The Drug War -- there all better now) War on Terror provides the authoritarians (you know who you are) both inside and out side the government with the cover necessary to pursue their goals. What are their goals (you might reasonably ask)?
Control, power, the simple joy of keeping an eye on you and busting a few, preferably minority and/or young asses every once in a while.
William S. Burroughs playing a junkie priest in the movie Drug Store Cowboy has a wonderful rant about just this.
The point is I guess, that drugs are just Bad there is really no other reason. People like drugs, people are willing to pay for drugs and people are willing to be arrested for drugs. Well they are not willing to be arrested after they've been arrested, but they are willing to take the chance. So a country (ours) with a higher per-centage of its population in some for of jail, prison, or on some sort of probation/parole than any other in the world is willing to continue to put people in jail for no apparent good reason other than to teach them a lesson -- that drugs be bad and you should go to jail for using them.
A second thought is that given the apparent melt down of the economy we are willing to spend the money to continue to do just that. I costs more to keep a person in prison than to send them to a four year college. Plus there is my cost. I suppose I shouldn't complain since there are more clients out there because of a drug war than there would be without. A lot of them are felonies which means even more money than people busted for misdemeanors.
Well more thoughts later, maybe maybe not, we'll see.
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