Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure

llnltrodtuclt~ion<br > Mistrust those in whom the impulse to punish is strong.<br > -- Friedrich Nietz.sehe<br > States has been on a rampage， kicking in doors and locking peo-<br > ple up in the name of protecting its citizens from illegal drugs.<br > Hundreds of billions of dollars into the Drug War， nobody claims vic-<br > tory. Yet we continue， devoted to a policy as expensive， ineffective，<br > delusional， and destructive as government gets.<br > The country began using police to control the use of certain drugs<br > in 19I4. But the \"War on Drugs，\" in name and in spirit， started dur-<br > ing the 1968 presidential campaign， when the country discovered how<br > \"drugs\" could stand in for a host of troubles too awkward to discuss<br > plainly.<br > The war metaphor worked for Richard Nixon that year. It con-<br >tinues to work for politicians ranging from Jesse Jackson to Jesse<br >Helms because nearly everyone has found a reaso<br >appalled b their teen h~u . ~ n to enlist: parents<br > Y s o...lavmr， police starved tor revenue， conserva-<br >tive politicians pandering to their constituents moral dudgeon， lib-<br >eral politicians needing a chance to look \"tou-h<br > ， presments looking<br >for distractions from scandal， whites -- and blacks -- striving to \"ex<br > )， ~ .<br >I lain the ghetto， editors filling page one， spies and colonels needing<br >an enemy to replace Communists，，，<br > The War on Drugs is about lot of things， but only rarely is it<br >really about drugs， a<br >