The GOOD 100: Ending the War on Drugs

Finding a Better Way to Fight

It's pretty much unanimous, at this point: The war on drugs has sucked us all down with it. Each year it accounts for more than a million arrests and costs the United States tens of billions of dollars. The impact of the war's failed policies can be seen everywhere: There are arrest rates with their damning racial biases; the overcrowded state and federal prisons; and the fact that we spend a mint in taxpayer dollars to try to make a point. And that point has quite pointedly not being taken, as illegal drugs are bigger business than ever: Drug rings, by some estimates, control 8 percent of global GDP. The good news is that the movement to end this so-called war has more advocates than ever. No longer limited to fringe marijuana activists, Hollywood types, and oddball presidential candidates, the push to end the war is finally in the political mainstream. It's even being espoused by President Obama's drug czar, who said earlier this year that in order to create effective drug policy, we had to remove the world "war" from the mission statement. Mission not quite accomplished, but a good move nonetheless.