The War on Drugs. What a crock! It should of course be called The War On Some Drugs. What about alcohol? What about tobacco? These are drugs. I do not see the government sending people to prison for life for smoking a single cigarette, but they have done so, in Texas, to someone for smoking a single marijuana joint. Marijuana has never killed a user, however alcohol and tobacco kill millions each year! Am I the only one who finds this ludicrously sick?

Oh, and I hear the cries.. "But we tried to ban alcohol! It won't work! Same with tobacco, it just won't work!" Well, we can all see how wonderfully the War on Some Drugs is working, right? Even heroin (morphine) can be prescribed but not marijuana... OH NO! That would send the "Wrong Message"(tm)!! The same goes for needle exchange programs. These HAVE demonstrated clear evidence that they stem the spread of STDs and other bloodborne viruses... and there is clear evidence this has NO effect on increasing drug use. But it is blindly opposed! It is enough to make you want to retch! Here we sit, filling prisons and ruining lives and the largest killers of our citizens are immune. It makes no sense at all!

What needs to happen is the government needs to get the hell out of people's private lives. If they steal or assault someone or drive while impaired due to the influence of drugs, like alcohol, then nail them for doing THAT! However if they responsibly just use drugs in the privacy of their own homes or responsibly elsewhere, as the commercial used to inquire... "Where's the beef?".

If we did not waste such incredible money and resources (not to mention wasted lives) on this clearly and abyssmally failed policy we could put those resources to actually preventing and punishing REAL CRIMES like murder, assault, rape, kidnapping, robbery, etc. Right now those get shoved out the door with a wrist slap, if they are investigated at all, because the War on Drugs makes 'drug crimes' the 'offense du jour'! Someone could be a Nobel laureate or a brilliant physicist or lawyer or doctor... but because he or she smoked a joint they are deemed worthless to society! Madness!

What could we do if we dropped this moronic policy? We would save all the money spent in persecution, prosecution, investigation, and incarceration of all these citizens. We could also gain tax revenue from the LEGAL sale of these products which are in demand. Also we would remove major sources of funding from criminals! We could put even a tenth of all that back into rehab and prevention programs, fully funding them to meet any existing need (which does not happen now). Also people who want rehab might seek it if doing so was not admitting to felonious activity! Granted, this will not produce Peace on Earth, but it would make a lot more sense than what we are doing now!

Face it... as said earlier, it did not work with alcohol. Why was that? Could it be that prohibition, as a policy and a concept, has NEVER worked in ANY context at ANY time in the entirety of human history? It did not work with prostitution, gambling, abortion, et al. And it most assuredly is clearly not working with the War on Some Drugs! When will people open their eyes and ignore the factless droning of those who keep trying this failed policy?

Alcohol and tobacco use is way down from where it was just 50 years ago. Was it draconian laws which caused this? Not at all. It was education and rehab availability. It certainly was not criminalization. There is no reason to believe that legalizing drugs would result in anything significantly different.

For a recent example of the current Reefer Madness model of governmental disinformation and dishonesty on the topic see the laughable website Abovetheinfluence.com .