The neverending story: The War on Drug$

There will never be an end to the United States' War on Drugs. There is just too much money and profit involved for The Powers That Be to give it up. Think of how much would be lost if drugs were decriminalized. The police would have a dramatic drop in arrests, thus smaller police forces would be needed, the courts would have tremendously fewer cases on the docket, thus leading to less court time and less cases for lawyers and, finally, the Prison Industrial Complex would suffer major drops in profits (and guards - the union would not like that at all).

I believe all drugs should be decriminalized and treated as a health problem. Glenn Greenwald wrote a white paper on Portugal's decision to decriminalize drugs almost a decade ago:

On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not “legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm.

Mr. Greenwald's closing paragraph sums it up nicely:

The Portuguese have seen the benefits of decriminalization, and therefore there is no serious political push in Portugal to return to a criminalization framework. Drug policymakers in the Portuguese government are virtually unanimous in their belief that decriminalization has enabled a far more effective approach to managing Portugal’s addiction problems and other drug-related afflictions. Since the available data demonstrate that they are right, the Portuguese model ought to be
carefully considered by policymakers around the world.

It's very interesting reading and I highly recommend it.

Of course, there are those who agree with my assertion of dumping the War on Drugs. An example is The Wire creator David Simon, who was asked by Attorney General Eric Holder to create another season of his fine series. Simon's email response was,

The Attorney-General's kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I've spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.

Unfortunately, as blog writer Ray Gustini of The Atlantic Wire says,

The exchange has at least clarified one thing: the chances of another season of The Wire are now exactly the same as America having a rational dialogue about drug law reform.

Of course, I will never see what should be done to handle our country's drug problem. We'll just keep pouring money into the rabbit hole so that The Powers That Be can keep making those profits and generating revenue from the masses. Maybe the right kind of people will be able address this issue correctly in the future.

Always remember, in these kinds of issues...follow the money.