Four-Legged Victims of the War on Drugs

I meant to post this yesterday, but everyone should read this fantastic feature in the Washington Post Magazine. Forward it on to anyone you know who is still agnostic or ambivalent on the drug war, especially to any dog lovers you know.

I think so many people, especially conservative and right-leaning individuals,  presume a level of efficiency and competency on the part of our law enforcement that they deny our bureaucrats running Departments of Education, HUD, Transportation or Commerce. Were it not so. Whether you view it as an unfortunate reality or as another reason to abolish most forms of government, the War on Drugs has had an undeniably enormous effect on the size of law enforcement, the massive growth of “criminals” on our streets (and subsequent sociological fallout from time spent in prison), and the growth of the prison industry in the United States. This litany of government failure would be paraded around by the Right if it were public school teachers’ salaries, NEA grants, and “eco-friendly” boondoggles.

Is the level of government ineptitude tolerable in the War on Drugs? That’s up to each person to decide for himself. I think a fair-minded review of the facts, however, points toward this government effort being an intolerable evil foisted upon a dubious public.