Economic pressure and common sense are finally coming together to spur us to re-think our Drug War; the other War.  Obama casually made fun of taxing and regulating marijuana and then Obama's new Drug Czar indicated he wanted to see the term "War on Drugs" dropped from goverment rhetoric.  I agree we need to end the war on drugs not just the rhetoric. 

It is not apparent what the new Drug Czar real plan is;  the fact remains that the war generates fear and terror in it's wake. The terror is manifested ranging from outlaws on the streets to the SWAT team preparing for an operation.  On the streets it is the terror of being caught in the middle of young kids solving their "business" disputes with a gun battle.  The other side are SWAT teams who are engaged in training operations that turns into one more tradegy.

Starting an open and honest dialogue on how to implement an effective drug control policy is long overdue.  Our policy of prohibition (aka the Drug War) simply does not work.  Articles like that found in the recent The Nation can initiate this overdue discussion.  Below is link to article "The War on the War on Drugs" by Sasha Abramsky.

The Nation July 6th edition

If that old adage still holds true, then the nation may soon see a gradual backpedaling from the criminal justice policies that have led to wholesale incarceration in recent decades.

For the most populous state in the union is on the verge of insolvency--partly because it didn't set aside a rainy-day fund during the boom years; partly because its voters recently rejected a series of initiatives that would have allowed a combination of tax increases, spending cuts and borrowing to help stabilize the state's finances during the downturn; partly because it has spent the past quarter-century funneling tens of billions of dollars into an out-of-control correctional system.  Now, as California's politicians contemplate emergency cuts to deal with a $24 billion hole in the state budget, old certainties are crumbling.

The state with the toughest three-strikes law in the land and a prison population of more than 150,000 is facing the real possibility of having to release tens of thousands of inmates early in order to pare its $10 billion annual correctional budget.

At the same time, an increasing number of the state's political figures are challenging the basic tenets of the "war on drugs," the culprit most responsible for the spike in prison populations over the past thirty years; they argue that the country's harsh drug policies are not financially viable and no longer command majority support among the voting public.

Similar stories are unfolding around the country; in Washington, federal officials are talking about drug-policy reform and, more generally, sentencing reform in a way that has not been heard in the halls of power for more than a generation.

...... for the rest of the article please follow the link to the Article on The Nation