A petiton has been started and if it hits 1 million signatures the site owners will supposedly get to submit it to world leaders and get them to push for alternatives to the war on drugs....read more here:

http://avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/?fp

Much money also to be made in taxing drug use/etc. Though yes I remain wait and see on this, but it is gaining momentum and worth a shot.

A sizable portion of the religious right here in the States would throw a fit if we moved to decriminalization/regulation. The status quo is the moral .... quo.

Yeah but if it is done through legal means, there's no shuttling of it into secret accounts, so forget it.

By the way, if anyone is quitting, can I have your stuff?

Yes, the ass-backwards religious freaking right fkcuking everying up again. God bless america. Also, the war on drugs could be won by the usa lifting the damn barries and tariffs in foreign organic exports, to their "OMFG in need of protection" domestic market, and by legalizing drug use. But no, it's much better and simpler to just throw money and guns at the problem.

Every time i hear the term "war on drugs" my mind goes here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy-y-uamSiE
;)

Can't tax home grown weed or home made meth, heroin, crack cocaine.

The war on drugs is an effective means of maintaining control of a country's population. Drugs make for easy propaganda which gives the government a very powerful mandate supported by the people. The political parties use this propaganda to pass laws that, in essence, allow the populace to be farmed monetarily in fines, court costs, "rehabilitation" fees, etc. etc. Let's not forget that the drugs that are confiscated from the "big, scary dealer" are then returned into the same system that tries to fight against them in the first place. It's funny how the media always gives the street value of some big drug stash that was confiscated. If something is worth as much as they say it is, no way in hell it's just going to sit in some evidence locker for too long.

TLDR version:

War on Drugs = scam.

Did it just occur to me, or is Plants vs Zombies a metaphorical game for a drug war?
You protect a house and your lawn with plants assuming to have been injected with steroids against zombies with slow reflexes and a dazed look.

On topic, no point.

Can't tax home grown and raised food either, or grow their own cotton to make clothes, and yet grocery stores are where 99% of the population here buys their goods because it's more convenient.

Govs should really let people overdose and die. That's the only way they'll get rid of drugs.

I kind of always assumed it was less that and more people jacked up on meth out in public that concerned governments.

But, maybe I'm just an old fart for thinking there are actual issues in legalizing drugs.

Not that I think the "war on drugs" has been handled all that well.

Heroine and cocaine used to be legal. So was marijuana, opium, etc. That's why Sherlock Holmes was written to be blitzed out of his mind when he was bored, and how we got the infamous subversive opium wars between Britain and China.

It's history worth looking into.

The idea of not having a law on something meaning everyone's going to run out and do it, and do it to such an extent that it's going to ruin society, has no basis.

Those were definitely societies and times one would want to emulate.

I don't think anyone's making that claim. Or at least not many.

Laws don't exist on the grounds that each and every one is required to prevent utter ruination. For example, I don't think smoking bans ever tried arguing that everyone will get cancer.

If we don't outlaw drinking and driving, the roads will turn into war zones!