Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.
. . . Between 1998 and 2008, opiate use increased by more than 34 per cent, even as prison populations swelled and profits for drug traffickers soared.
Many political leaders and public figures acknowledge privately that repressive strategies have only made the drug problem worse. It took 14 years for America’s leaders to repeal Prohibition. After 50 years of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find the courage to speak out.
Always Question Authority
One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority. ~ Hitchens
Always Question Authority 
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There’s another interesting parallel which doesn’t get talked about too much, aside from Prohibition in America, and that’s the introduction of distilled liquor into Britain. Unlike (apparently) the rest of Europe, the British were really hit hard — people drinking themselves to death, or letting babies die of exposure so they could go get another dram. There’s a really good book on it — which I recently recommended in a comment on another blog, so I feel like I may be talking it up too much, but what the heck — called “Gin: The Much-Lamented Death of Madame Geneva” by Patrick Dillon.