From Bloomberg:
Our so-called "drug war" is useless and has always been useless. Portugal decriminalized drug possession and spent the monies directed to law enforcement to medical care and counseling. Excellent result. It is interesting to look at the situation here - only the criminal drug traffickers stand to profit by keeping the drugs illegal. Why have we not decriminalized drugs here in the USA - how much are the drug-traffickers paying our members of House and the Senate?
We have President Richard Nixon to thank for the opening salvos of this war in 1971. In 2009, ex-Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske was the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and rather than say the War on Drugs failed and try something else, he just renamed it - said the old term was counter productive. We still spend $51 Billion per year on this program that essentially does nothing.
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