It's the fucking Illuminati, I tell you.

This article makes a good case for legalization. That's the policy I favor, though my fear is that we are likely to get over-regulation, as we have seen in some of the states that have legalized marijuana. That would mean that, while drugs would be technically legal, there would still be a demand for illegal delivery because it would be cheaper.

I had an interesting related experience earlier this year while serving on a county grand jury. I asked the assistant DA who ran the proceedings what he would favor as a way to to reduce the drug problem in our area (mostly meth with some heroin), and he surprised me by saying he though we needed far more spending on social services. For a guy who was clearly a law-and-order, police friendly official to say that, really shows how much the American war on drugs has been a failure.

What's worse is that ever since President Nixon, it's been shown that treatment works better to curb drug abuse than prison. Unfortunately, politicians can't get elected standing atop a pile of recovering addicts the way they can standing atop a crate full of confiscated narcotics.

I wonder if we can come to an agreement with the narco traffickers: We make something illegal they can smuggle and fight each other over but is relatively harmless to the user. Like maybe Cadbury Creme Eggs?

Not to mention that felony convictions in many states mean that the person convicted loses the right to vote. That gives politicians even less incentive to listen to those who are penalized by the war on poverty.

Frankly, the whole "tough on crime/war on drugs" thing is just an alternate way to persecute people of color, particularly African-Americans. One need only look at the penalties for crack versus powdered cocaine to see that the law is a way to keep white folks on top, or how opiate use is now seen as an addiction rather than a criminal problem since it is mostly white people who are using.

The stress on law enforcement rather than treatment is racism, pure and simple. Hopefully people are finally waking up to that.

Prisons fine for black kids caught with tiny amounts of marijuana, but too tough for whites kids convicted of rape. It's always been about racism.

Not during the proceedings, I hope.