America's prisons contain about two million prisoners (as of December 31, 2001, according to the government's own prison statistics) -- more than any other country, including China. There were (on that date) about 470 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents. This was an increase of more than 60% over the previous 11 years.3.5% of all black men in America were in prison at the end of 2001. 1.2% of all Hispanic men. 0.4% of all white men.

These statistics owe a good deal to the "war on drugs." About a quarter of the prisoners in America -- half a million people -- are imprisoned on drug charges.

The war on drugs has been going full-speed for 30 years, and America's drug problem is worse than ever. Attacking the supply of drugs has not worked.

This is a war that is not driven by public health concerns, but, on all levels, by the hunger for power and money.

Politicians all agree that drugs are bad things, so they run for office on anti-drug platforms, trying to outdo each other to look tough. Once they are elected, passing laws punishing "drug traffickers" is a good way to look tough. For example, crack cocaine is declared (on no evidence) to be a hundred times as addictive as powder cocaine, so penalties for crack are set at a hundred times those for powder. The voters eat it up.

Law enforcement agencies justify their budgets by showing how many people they can arrest and how many drugs they can seize. They squabble among themselves for credit for large seizures, and everybody winds up taking credit so that the same ton of cocaine gets counted three or four times.

Individual agents promote their own careers by making drug busts and arrests at all costs. Evidence is fabricated, perjury committed, rights violated.

Prosecutors also justify their jobs by getting drug convictions and lengthy prison terms. Technically, they have a duty to see that justice is done, but in fact they don't often show a lot of concern over whether the witnesses they use are honest or the sentences they get reasonable.

Snitches -- confidential informants -- win their freedom, get paid by the government, and are allowed to continue their own drug-trafficking careers in exchange for helping agents and prosecutors make arrests and seizures. These crooks do not care one bit about whether the people they set up are innocent.

None of these people -- politicians, agents, prosecutors, snitches -- have any motivation to end the war on drugs or to explore other ways -- less costly in lives and money -- to deal with America's drug problem.

On the other side of the taxpayer-funded drugwar machine are regular people, whose rights are routinely violated; who are set up by snitches; whose innocent conduct is twisted to look guilty. Not one of us is more than one crooked cop away from prison.

Convictions for distribution of even small quantities of drugs carry heavy mandatory minimum sentences. The only thing standing between the accused and the federal penitentiary is the criminal defense lawyer.

If you'd like to talk about the war on drugs, please contact me.

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Mark.