Huffington | The Other (Failed) War

I haven't gotten to post much in the last few days. I'm trying to get broadband connection up and going at home and I'm having problems. Till I get it going I don't have Internet access there. So very intermitent posting. Here's an interesting article by Arianna Huffington on our failed and increasingly costly money pit "the war on drugs":
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The Other War: Democratic Candidates are Deafeningly Silent on the Drug War

While all the top candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed War on Drugs, a war that has morphed into a war on people of color.

Consider this: according to a 2006 ACLU report, African Americans make up 15 percent of drug users, but account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: America has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70 percent) are black or Latino.

Such facts and figures have been bandied about for years. But what to do about the legion of nonviolent -- predominantly minority -- drug offenders has long been an electrified third-rail in American politics, a subject to be avoided at all costs by our political leaders, who fear being incinerated on contact for being soft on crime.

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