The War on Drugs is unconstitutional, immoral, and a complete failure

First off, the war on drugs is unconstitutional. While the bill of rights does not specifically address this, the spirit of the document is that of keeping the government out of our personal lives. If someone wants to ingest chemical substances in the privacy of their own home, it may not be the healthiest thing to do, granted, but it is not the function of our government to interfere in activities that are completely personal to us and do not hurt anyone else by us doing them. By ignoring this important fact, we are prying open the door of tyranny and civil rights abuse. We, as United States citizens, are obligated to keep the government true in its duties to us by letting it know when it is overstepping its authority and voting accordingly. We have taken our eye off the ball on this issue, and it is time for action. The three main reasons why proponents of the drug war justify this endeavor despite the obvious infraction of our basic civil liberties are: 1)Health detriments due to drug use - It is not the governments job to tell us about our health; you cannot hope to outlaw every activity that may be unhealthy. 2)impairment of judgement due to drug use - This is the strongest argument here, because you can affect others with impaired judgement, however it is an inherently flawed one. The ends absolutely never can justify the means, and that is what this argument essentially is. We might as well put all autistic individuals to death right away if we go down this road, and if the government is empowered to tell us what state of mind we should be in then we are in BIG trouble. We will have to make due with punishing individuals after the fact that hurt people while under the influence of mind-altering substances. This is the way our justice system works for every other crime; our justice system can only technically arrest people who have already committed crimes, not people who may be in the position to do so in the future. 3)general family values in contradiction with drug use. - These "family values" arguments made by the christian right are especially distasteful, as they aim to dictate at the end of a gun how people should conduct the nuances of their lives. The family values arguments against drugs are similar in logic to the arguments against homosexuality. If homosexuals want to sodomize each other, its their own business. I hear people say "well I don't agree with homosexuality but its not right for the government to tell them what to do". NO ONE CARES whether you agree with it! Homosexuals are not knocking on peoples doors and asking them whether they agree with them! We are talking about passing laws here; if you pass laws based on opinions then you are taking the path towards dictatorship. Secondly, The War on Drugs is immoral. The stories of cancer patients being raided by swat teams after states grant them the right to smoke to ease their pain is just the tip of the iceberg here; peoples civil liberties are being smashed to pieces in the name of the War on Drugs and a full third of our prisons are housing drug offenders. Drug addicts need help, not prison sentences. And third, the war on drugs is a complete and utter failure. Countless billions of dollars spent, countless people's lives tarnished by drug convictions, and the average Joe can still walk two houses down and get any drug he could possibly want. Crack, cocaine, marijuana, extasy, heroine, acid, and mushrooms are so easily available that it is almost laughable. The main difference that the drug warriors have made for us, is that by keeping drugs illegal, you create an especially lucrative market for illegal drug dealers (especially foeign ones!). We could put every evil drug dealer in the world out of business practically overnight by decriminalizing drugs... but who wants to do that :P!! Furthermore, We cannot effectively help drug addicts while they are being persecuted as criminals. If drugs were legal, we could put strict controls on them, and "junkies" could be persuaded easily into safe havens where they could find the drugs, and under the supervision of professionals and doctors, they could get high in a place where they could not hurt anyone else. "Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded"-Abraham Lincoln, 1840