The Way It Is
by TChris
Let's hope Walter Cronkite, writing for Huffington Post, can persuade the country to accept the obvious: the war on drugs is a failure.
The federal government has fought terminally ill patients whose doctors say medical marijuana could provide a modicum of relief from their suffering - as though a cancer patient who uses marijuana to relieve the wrenching nausea caused by chemotherapy is somehow a criminal who threatens the public.
People who do genuinely have a problem with drugs, meanwhile, are being imprisoned when what they really need is treatment.
And what is the impact of this policy?
It surely hasn't made our streets safer. Instead, we have locked up literally millions of people...disproportionately people of color...who have caused little or no harm to others - wasting resources that could be used for counter-terrorism, reducing violent crime, or catching white-collar criminals.
With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort - with no one held accountable for its failure.
Amid the clichés of the drug war, our country has lost sight of the scientific facts. Amid the frantic rhetoric of our leaders, we've become blind to reality: The war on drugs, as it is currently fought, is too expensive, and too inhumane.
But nothing will change until someone has the courage to stand up and say what so many politicians privately know: The war on drugs has failed.
Go read the rest. Cronkite cites tragic examples of injustice perpetrated by prosecutors, police, and politicians, while making a pitch for the Drug Policy Alliance and its extraordinary work to reform draconian (and ineffective) drug laws. His voice deserves to be heard.
| < Bush Promises to Get Bin Laden | Washington Acknowledges Lynch Mob Injustice > |
