The Drug War, Libertarian Issue Number 1

I try to avoid talking about national issues, but this national issue is the root cause of so many problems plaguing the city. And with the local election over, it may be time to put local issues to rest (well, for a week or so). CityBeat is running a cover story in it's most recent issue. From my experience, it seems that the number 1 issue is the insane war on drugs that has cost this country billions of dollars, countless of innocnent lives (it has killed more people than drugs themselves), has funded terrorist organizations, and is the primary cause of gang warfare. When alcohol prohibition was enacted in 1919, almost overnight, we saw an increase in the violent crime rate (similar to where it is today). The year it was ended (1933), the crime rate went back to it's pre-prohibtion levels (it was just a bit higher than before). Now we have prohibition again, except this time it is drug prohibition. And instead of Al Capone and the mafia crime families killing each other over turf, we have street gangs killing each other (and innocent people)fighting over turf. Not much has changed. Here is the story.

http://www.citybeat.com/current/cover.shtml