War on drugs and collateral damage.

The cartoon above does a good job of illustrating the collateral damage that has been a result of the war on drugs.

There have been interventions in foreign countries in this drug war and people in the US have had their homes stormed by drug enforcement agents, sometimes wrongfully.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Drug Offenders account for 54.7% of sentenced prisoners in BOP-Operated Facilities. That's up from 16.3% in 1970.
BOP.gov

The National Drug Control Budget for 2003 was over $19 billion ( link ) and I'm sure a lot more is being spent on police officers enforcing the drug laws and on incarceration of drug offenders.

It would be great if we could at least say the end justifies the means but in spite of the strong stance on drugs, drug use is still higher in the US than it is in countries with more permissive attitudes towards drug use.




NDM Annual report 2003 (3.5MB PDF)

I'm not a user (or seller) and don't endorse it's use but I think there needs to be a different approach than what's currently being used.
A lot of money is being wasted and many people are being incarcerated and it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect.

Why isn't there a real war. The Drug War is not a real war. More like a discrimination against a race of people. When will the land of the free be truely free for all? When will the real war be fought? I think it's time we got this over with. We'll put all the anti drag people on one side and all the pro drug people on the other side. Everone get a gun, stick, sword whatever to fight with. Start the real war and who ever wins WINS! If the anti drug people wins. They need to make sure all the pro drug people are killed. Can't let there kind of free thinking infect the minds of the anti drug population. That way all you have left is the anti drug people and the people who just don't care. Plain and simple. Problem solved the war will be over. Everything can go back to the way things where before all this crap started. Lets get this war going!!! Someone hand me a gun.