An end to the "War on Drugs"?

White House Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'

Let's hope that finally people get over their unrealistic view of drugs in this country. I hate to break it to everyone, but no matter how long this "war" goes on, drugs aren't going away. It's not just drug dealers and junkies involved in this. It's lawyers, corporate types, stay-at-home moms, your children, and Rush Limbaugh. It's human nature that people will use drugs. Our time would be best spent in trying to educated and treat people to keep them off of drugs, rather than sending them to jail and wasting our tax money. If we wanted to end the violence in Mexico, we would make in unprofitable to try and bring drugs into our country. One way we could do that is ending the prohibition that creates this black market. I'm not sure I would suggest we do it with all drugs (maybe start slow with Marijuana, which wasn't illegal before 1937 in the U.S. anyway), but we need to get over the puritanical view of drugs if we're ever going to actually solve the main problem (that the U.S. has a HUGE demand for drugs) that creates all these other problems (a violent black-market trade, tons of people in prison for a vice, a tax on law enforcement, and the money it costs us to fight the "War on drugs").

There is a big parallel in this "war on drugs", and it's our "war on terrorism". In both we think we can fight the warred-upon subject with force and criminalization, and we're dead wrong. The reality is that the roots of both are in a lack of education, economic opportunity, etc, etc. We need to improve peoples lives at the basic level, give them an education and a shot at life and happiness, and drug use and terrorism would be significantly reduced. This militaristic approach to the problems of our society shows a lack of true understanding of the situation and the motives of people, and that is going to come back to bite us in the end.