The War is the Demon

Four states, including our neighbor Washington, are going forward with steps to legalize marijuana - and, by making those steps, are moving toward the termination of our preposterous "Drug War"

Not surprisingly at least one of the officials that benefit by the irrational "Drug War" puts forth a negative reaction: "There's no upside to it in any manner other than for those people who want to smoke pot," said Travis Kuykendall, head of the West Texas High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area office in El Paso, Texas. "There's nothing for society in it, there's nothing good for the country in it, there's nothing for the good to the economy in it."

This person who benefits from the "Drug War" fails to note the human and financial costs, the devastating enforcement structure we've built, the way we have overwhelmed our judicial and penal systems with users and the way we have trashed our neighbors to the south with our efforts. He also fails to take into account two other realities: Marijuana has not been shown to be more dangerous than tobacco, which we subsidize, or coffee in which we are drowning ourselves. This is not even to take note of the fact that the "Drug War" has been a dismal, totally unpromising, failure.