I am not in favor of banning alcohol, but the evidence is overwhelming that it's a far more damaging drug than marijuana. Lumping marijuana with illegal hard drugs is a continuing absurdity that leads young people to distrust all anti-drug warnings. Treating drug addiction as a medical rather than a criminal problem works. Serious drug treatment is only available to 10 percent of those in prison who need it. Yet we continue to waste billions of dollars on failed war-fighting scenarios.
Drugs are more available than ever.
Opium production has doubled in the past decade. What madness to continue the current strategy at ever-greater human and financial cost. Now we spend eight times more, and they tell us the end is not in sight. This is a war fought in a contradictory and racist manner aimed primarily at the urban ghetto. Only 13 percent of drug users are black, but they make up far more than a majority of those imprisoned on drug charges.