Just say "what?"

Back in March, Walter Cronkite posted a blog entry on Huffington Post about the continued failure of the "war on drugs." His thesis in a nutshell: the definition of insanity is repeating the same action while expecting different results.

Since Nancy Reagan rolled out her oh-so useful "Just Say No" campaign, not a dent has been made in the American drug trade. And yet we keep fighting in the same way: arresting petty drug dealers, imprisoning addicts who need rehab not the narcotic free-for-all that prison provides, and teaching kids about drugs with the antiquated notion that somehow pot is as bad as cocaine.

Another Huffington Post blogger, Maia Szalavitz posted more useful insight to this failed war, suggesting that the only way to combat the deluge of heroin reportedly making its way from Afghanistan to Europe is to offer farmers a fair trade price for their crops and either destroy it or turn it into medicine for underserved countries. After all, I'd be willing to bet that those in the drug trade in order to make a passable living outnumber malicious thugs by a thousand to one.

Moreover, Szalavitz points to a statistic that says 98% of the pot apprehened by U.S. law enforcement is what potheads call schwag - you'd get just about as high smoking that as banana peels.

Ultimately, our drug laws are an unfortunate Puritan throw-back. This recent anti-drug commercial (watch "Pete's Couch") may just be the most honest thing I've seen on tv in a long time: pot isn't going to make people think they can drive 140 down Battleground Ave and pot almost never precedes domestic abuse.

But alcohol does...

Speaking of which, in high school, it was nearly impossible for me to get legal booze and a breeze to get illegal drugs... Just a little food for thought.