Is it not at least a reasonable hypothesis to assume that the war
on drugs is intended to create the effects we see -- that it is in
fact successful.
The effects we see are more and more powerful police departments,
intensification of racism, a vast prison complex, reinforcement of
the ideological ascription of social problems to individual action,
a vast reservoir of topics for tv and movies. So the question
Why the war on drugs? would become the question: Why are
these effects desirable?
I remember reading a while back that the points carol makes above were nixon's impetus for starting the "war on drugs." a convenient way to perpetuate institutional racism, while saying that the targets are drugs themselves