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are afraid to go out at night.

The war on drugs was supposed to make them harder to get, yet one can go on any high school campus in the United States and buy or find a source for marijuana.

The damage done by the war on drugs is myriad. Go to the web site for drugsense.org, and click on the Drug War Clock. It gives a stunning visual of how fast our tax dollars are depleted pursuing a war that cannot be won. As of today, 15 July 2008, $27 billion, 400 thousand has been spent on the war on drugs since the first of the year. This does not include court costs from drug arrests and prosecution nor does it account for the cost of incarceration.

As of today over one million Americans have been arrested for drugs, 450 thousand of these were for marijuana, a drug that has never registered a single death from overdose. The number of arrests for all illegal drugs in 2008 is expected to exceed the 1,889,810 drug arrests reported in 2006.

It is estimated over half of the 2 million Americans in prison are there for violation of drug laws, many for simple possession. At an estimated cost of $23,000 per year per inmate the collateral costs are staggering. Further harm is caused once they serve their time since many job opportunities will be denied them for the rest of their lives.

Innocent children are thrown into foster care because their single parent is in prison. The emotional and psychological damage caused by this sudden loss of a parent and a family home environment is immeasurable. The stress on the foster care system is enormous

Our civil liberties have taken a severe beating. At one time no one could search your person, your car or your home without a warrant. Now all it takes is the scent of marijuana in the air and law enforcement on the scene will be all over you and your car like red ants on a bare foot.

State's rights are also being cast aside as evidenced by Federal SWAT teams kicking down doors in California to arrest those who are growing pot for medicinal use, as authorized by their own state laws. This brings to mind the patients who can benefit from this treatment being denied access.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has an army of professionally trained heavily armed individuals aimed directly at American citizens. Their training is at a paramilitary level and they are taught drug users are the "enemy," that what they are doing is a "special operation" for a bold new "offensive" for the "war" Even the officers that patrol our city streets can no longer

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