Pitts rips Obama on drug war

The Finger Lakes' own Five Points prison

Overlooked in all the bruhaha generated by our one term president's recent trip to sunny Cartegena was Obama's renewed support of the government's endless war on drugs.  Leonard Pitts knocks it out of the park.

The president’s reasoning is about as sturdy as a cardboard box in a monsoon. Even he must know — who can still deny? — that the drug war has failed. When it comes to quantifying that failure, several numbers are stark and edifying:

Forty-one. That’s how many years the “War” has raged.

Forty million-plus. That’s how many Americans have been arrested.

One trillion-plus. That’s the cost.

Two thousand, eight hundred. That’s the percentage by which drug use has risen.

One-point-three. That’s the percentage of Americans who were drug addicted in 1914.

One-point-three. That’s the percentage of Americans who are drug addicted now.

One could easily conclude that the whole "war on some drugs" is nothing more than a government power-and-money grab.  We can't remember ever agreeing with Leonard Pitts on anything else, so read the whole thing.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/17/2754331/if-not-drug-legalization-what.html#storylink=cpy