The War on Drugs, Prohibition Redux, and A War on Sanity

Remember the bumper sticker, "End this War", modified to read "This Endless War"?
That's the so-called War on Drugs (WOD), which has mutated into corporate socialism for the prison industry and jobs-for-life for prison guards. It's also an excuse for cops to finance their organizations via "direct taxation," i.e., seizure of property from drug offenders.

Remember prohibition in the U.S? It resulted from an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, sponsored by well-meaning folks infused with the Puritan Ethic. Seems like only folks nostalgic for Eliot Ness and Al Capone remember it now. It was a bad idea then and a colossal fiasco. It's a bad idea now, too, and we've had a newer version of it since the late 1960's. A better idea is harm reduction, where the cure is not worse than the disease and does not destroy the patient's life.

Drug abuse (read: abuse, not use) is bad for everyone, but the WOD is even worse. The violence in Mexico and Colombia are direct results of U.S. policy. Even more ironic, drug importers and dealers want the U.S. to retain its current policies, since it keeps the price of product up: it's the market in action, but trade is not free, due to the U.S. embargo, which helps sustain the high profit margin, violence, and loss of freedom and life. A sarcastic cynic might call this American Capitalism at its finest.

The United States imprisons a much higher percentage of its population than any other country.  Is that the price of security?  No, but the WOD is part of the reason.  See this for the shocking reality, which deserves more commentary: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html

Let's end this nonsense now and spend the money on treatment and education. Money spent on education is money well spent, an investment in the future.

Who increased the U.S.A. national debt the most? ...and the War on X

A: See http://www.flickr.com/photos/speakerpelosi/5684032538/sizes/l/in/photostream/
...subject to "fact check", of course, but accurate enough for politics.

The Republican War on Taxes is a War against Government, a war against a balanced budget and vital government services.  The U.S.A. has the lowest taxes of any industrialized country except for Japan.

Repealing the Bush tax break for corporations and the upper echelon would nearly balance the budget, and a War on War (War for Peace?), i.e., avoiding needless war would put the country on the debt reduction road.  (So which wars are needless? A: Most of them.)