Gman1322 and Debear
Drugs are bad, but I agree with Airforce that they are ultimately a vice. These laws originated as revenue crimes and like all taxation based tyrany it has only grown in scope and effectiveness as an instrumentality of totalitarianism. I have seen the way the modern criminal-industrial complex works from the inside of the beast' belly. The war on drugs is the main appendage of that monster.
Who controls most of the drug trade? Local sheriffs! I am not saying all do it, but enough do it that it is darn near a cliche'. In cities, corrupt politicians and mob bosses conspire to control the illegal drug rackette. In New Orleans for instance most of the section 8 slums are owned by the judges and city officials who put their tenants in jail after selling them dope!
Why wage this war on Black folks? Perhaps basic racism is a factor. More likely it is because these folks are seen as Helots by the ruling elite to be culled occassionaly so they can serve as new bodies for filling the beds in the many private prisons around this country. Once out of jail they become customers of the many probation and parole monitering service businesses that parasitically rehab and monitor ex-cons.
Are black people just inherently depraved? I do not think that is the case, so why are so many black men in prision on mostly drug related offenses, usually starting with simple possession charges. Once in the system their legitimate options for employment are very limited and they become career criminals instead. There they are also radicalized as they become Black Muslims. This makes them even more dangerous and that necessitates even more scrutiny by the State's security apparatus.
It is said that if you kill 10 you are a criminal but if you kill 10,000 they call you emperor. This is so true. The white collar criminals at Enron and Haliburton have done way more harm to society than any junky or street level pusher.
By the way, the war on militias is a war on white people, at least those white Christain people who haven't lined up for more somma spiked kool-aide. See this is a divide a conquor strategy. When Democrats are in power they focus on grinding the white middle class into dust. When the Republican take over they target the black underclass.
If the state puts genocidal scale pressure on blacks it breeds resentment. They lash out, this precipitates fear among white property owners who militate for more law and order. Despotism is enhanced. Then, While white and black folks are at each others throats, the organized crime figures in DC and their corporate masters rob us both blind. At the end of the day we just move closer and closer to Third World style peonage and more federal money is poured into local law enforcement outfits so that they are simultaneously co-opted and paramilitarized.
