1999oct26. A witness described the carnage succinctly: ”It was like war.” It was war, the “Drug War,” which has led to a greater deterioration of civil liberties than any hysteria this century. Incredibly, the Drug War has been popular with the public, despite being an expensive, destructive failure. A failure, that is, assuming its purpose is to stop drug usage: Many believe the Drug War’s real goal is to condition public acceptance for authoritarian control, linking it to the suppression of undesirables and social misfits. If so, it has been a smashing success.
