John Tierney is again talking sense on the Drug Wars:

During the war on drugs in the 1980’s and 1990’s, federal and local
agents risked their lives going after drug gangs on the streets. As
their budgets for drug enforcement soared, they arrested hundreds of
thousands of people annually and filled a quarter of American prison
cells with drug offenders.

But what did they have to show for
it? Drugs remained as available as ever on the streets – and actually
got a lot cheaper. The street price of heroin and cocaine dropped by
more than half in the last two decades. Dealers just went on dealing,
not only lowering their prices but also selling stronger, purer
versions of heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Given this record, and
the pressure from Congress to show results, it’s understandable that
the Drug Enforcement Administration and local police departments hit on
a new strategy: defining deviancy up. Federal and local authorities
shifted their focus to doctors and the new scourge of OxyContin and
similar painkillers, known generally as opioids.

As quarry for
D.E.A. agents, doctors offered several advantages over crack dealers.
They were not armed. They were listed in the phone book. They kept
office hours and records of their transactions. And unlike the typical
crack dealer living with his mother, they had valuable assets that
could be seized and shared by the federal, state and local agencies
fighting the drug war.

Legalize the damn things now. The damage being done by the War on Drugs is vastly greater than that done by the drugs themselves.