I wanted to title this blog "Imus Isn't Half As Bad As Your Government Is", but I'd already used my mandatory Imus headline.

The drug war has done to more harm to society, minorities in particular, than the Iraq war has. Richard Nixon coined the term "war on drugs" in 1971 after my parents got to have all their fun (BOO!)

Approximately 55% of federal inmates are drug offenders. (http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm) It costs us about $22,000 per inmate, per year (http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/22/22006.html) to keep these people in Federal prison (Republicans: This could have been a tax savings of about $19,133,840,000).

The "war on drugs" has torn families apart, clogged up our prisons and courtrooms, created terrible governments at our door in South America (Don't even let me get started about Afghanistan), and created a vacuum of poverty and crime (that does suck!!) in many low-income areas all over our country. (Democrats: if we taxed drugs, you'd be able to try to fund rehab programs, after school programs, all kind of spending :))

I'll be honest. I've wrestled with this issue, as far as crystal meth is concerned (thought it might need to be excluded from legalization), but the current way isn't working.

One of my good friends has become addicted to that crap (don't ask me how, I have no idea), and the last time I saw him, he was a shell of the person he was before. He's gone to jail several times, had to hire attorneys, pay fines, and a bunch of other things. If he'd taken the money he's spent on fines and attorneys, he could have gone to rehab by now. If he wasn't constantly having to look for it, he'd probably still have his job. My friend is not a criminal, he's got an addiction.

There has to be a better way.

The Government is winning the war on drugs. They just didn't tell us, we are the targets
This is an issue worthy of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.