Reality Intrudes on the Drug War

The War on Drugs is a Failure.

Mexico is in the throes of a virtual civil war. Last year, some 6,000 people died in drug-related violence, and already this year, another 2,000 have perished.

Illegal workers are not the only migrants across our southern border. "U.S. authorities are reporting a spike in killings, kidnappings, and home invasions connected to Mexico's murderous cartels," the Associated Press reports. "And to some policymakers' surprise, much of the violence is happening not in towns along the border, where it was assumed the bloodshed would spread, but a considerable distance away, in places such as Phoenix and Atlanta."

Politicians measure the success of their drug prohibition laws by the increase in the prison population, not by the costs in money, lives, and liberty. If they are judged by this standard, the War on Drugs, having imprisoned thousands for victimless transgressions, would be a rousing success.