What is the War on Drugs?

And I am not asking that question trying to remember through any hazy brain cells. I 'm just not sure what the battle is really about. First let me say, I am not an advocate of drugs. I don't even have an aspirin in my home, much less anything that could remotely alter my thinking process. There is enough confusion already being presented, I certainly don't need to give the propaganda a "breeding ground." I suppose to win the war, we need to know what the fight is really about and what the target is. First, what drugs have we declared war on? Wasn't the war on drugs that was declared in the 80's just a type of Prohibition without an Amendment? We wanted illicit drugs off the streets. So, we busted all the "aggressive pot smokers" which in itself is an oxymoron, jailed them, then what? We had already started cracking down on the dealers, and with the crack down, came the name for the next round of drugs: crack. What I really noticed though, was the group that experimented with LSD and pot simply moved onto the acceptable establishment drugs. That's right, they graduated college, got a job with good insurance and great co-pay benefits and get the legal ones that take the worry out of the buzz. Then we had to move on to the next round of the war, the "bladder to bottle" intesive. Since we cannot trust anyone now, we must do drug screening. I think it's a wonderful concept for a bluff, but really . . . making people believe they had to be degraded to have a job? And look, got rid of that 'pesky' liberty: "innocent until proven guilty." And the American public accepted it. The men that were willing to work and support their families had to put up with it to be employed, because union representation was more or less retired by then. The pre-emptive strike of the drug war was now permanently in place. And, if you have a headache or toothache or compound fracture, it is illegal for you to accept any prescribed pain medication from anyone that is not authorized to prescribe, that includes your spouse. So remember, tooth ache at 10:30pm Friday and the dentist isn't in until 8am Monday, and your spouse has a couple of pain killers left over from a procedure . . . too bad. Now I am really not sure how that plays into keeping our streets safe from dealers, but I do see how it keeps pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, and the personnel collecting the ever expanding personal data base employed, not to mention nursing staff. Can you imagine that much unemployment in our nation, right now?
So what has the war on drugs accomplished? New issues, heated debates, more new laws, and a greater level of paranoia by those that are not on drugs. And there are now more children on maintenance medication than ever before. So was the war on drugs to get the sales in the right hands? Was the war on drugs to eliminate the choice and control the dosage? What are we really fighting and are we winning? Will we know when we've won?
Remember when drug testing started in sports, remeber how many athletes were on drugs? Remember drug testing for the teamsters and truckers, anyone remember the teamsters? What would the politics of our nation be right now if they had drug testing for radio broadcasters?

for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged . . .