War on Drugs

There is a third war that diverts public funds with little positive results--the War on Drugs. We have spent billions for many years destroying poppy fields and giving aid to the armies and police of countries suppling heroin. What have we accomplished? It simply makes the drug lords richer by driving up prices. And, it corrupts the police and other public officials. Ordinary citizens are caught in the cross fire of feuding drug lords. You would have thought that we would have learned something from our experience with liquor prohibition. It did not work and we eventually repealed the law.
If we legalized heroin and supplied it in regulated clinics, we would destroy the huge profits that fund guns for the drug lords and the Taliban in Afghanistan. If we used a portion of the money trying to help addicts instead of search and destroy we would have more for out money.