One Trillion Dollars have been spent on the War on Drugs and what

[madinmaryland]

does this country have to show for it??

Hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been ruined because they could not get treatment and ended up in jail.

[ParkieDem]

1. I generally agree.

But remember, the same argument is made by right-wingers about the War on Poverty.

[rurallib]

3. The war on poverty has had success.

Funny, but you seldom hear about it because of our media.
The War on drugs, not so much. Biggest success there is making scum rich and electing idiot politicians.

[ParkieDem]

10. I respectfully disagree.

Isn't childhood poverty much greater today than in the 1960s? And aren't our inner cities decimated?

[Warpy]

12. The War on Poverty ended in 1969 when liberals went out of power

The only programs we still have are Head Start and WIC, both with decent track records.

What we've had since 1969 is a war on the poor.

[rurallib]

18. The poverty rates of today have little to do with the War on Paverty

I would say that poverty rates of today have more to do with reagan, bush and bush.

[madinmaryland]

15. The War on Poverty ended in 1981, with the election of Ronald Reagan who

initiated the War on the Poor and middle-class.

[Echo In Light]

2. K/R ...Grass 1999

Good doc:
http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500317014/

[Webster Green]

4. Many of them don't need treatment.

There are lots of pot smokers included in those numbers. They don't need treatment. They need a nice bag of Humboldt's finest buds.

[flamingdem]

5. It's a business for law enforcement and prisons nt

[immoderate]

6. We have the largest prison system in the history of the world!

--imm

[obxhead]

7. an over burdened prison system full of potheads.

A majority of people swept up in the 'war' are simple users of drugs and in possession of tiny amounts.

[Echo In Light]

8. Tommy Chong on Joe Biden:

Tommy Chong, a TalkLeft favorite, had this to say to the Washington Post about Joe Biden:

"Check out the people you're voting for.... "For instance, Joseph Biden comes off as a liberal Democrat, but he's the one who authored the bill that put me in jail. He wrote the law against shipping drug paraphernalia through the mail - which could be anything from a pipe to a clip or cigarette papers."

[polichick]

9. Yep - ruined lives and hypocrisy. nt

[blucaller]

11. Many drug laws had racist origins

because of ginned up fear of wild eyed jazz musicians, etc

[Echo In Light]

13. Yep...and decades prior to that era, too

[EFerrari]

16. After they shut down Reconstruction, black people in the South

began to be pretty much preyed upon by a criminal justice system that simply wanted to control them and re-steal their labor.

[indepat]

14. Just another of the joys of living in a rw-dominated society

:grr:

[Pushed To The Left]

17. By putting poor and/or desperated people in prison, they prevent them from voting and being

politically active. Plus, it's $$ for the prison industrial complex. What's so disappointing is how weak so many politicians are on this issue. Even some mostly-progressive Democratic politicicans are against a ballot initiative here in California to legalize marijuana! What needs to be done is for the social conservative movement to be fought against until it is crushed into submission. Sounds harsh, but social conservatism is the cancer that brought us the drug war and equally heinous violations of human rights.

[Blue Owl]

19. Jack Freaking Squat is what

n/t