It is easy to get down to cases and show how drugs are bad. The kids who are forced to live in homes with meth being cooked, for example. The ghastliness of it shuts the mouths of anyone inclined to oppose the "war on drugs".
But, the war is not working. Even the warrior-police will tell you that with all of their resources and manpower they are not even scratching the surface. Oh, the figure head elected officials will brag at every bust about how so much less heroin or meth or spice or cocaine etc is loose on the streets, and they will say they made a dent in supply. But, they know they are being less than honest about the magnitude of the benefit of their work. Their careers depend on the problem and also on being able to appear to make progress against it on one side, and ignorance of the oublic about the extent of drug use on the other. The war has failed.
The wake of it is a more than one generation of people raised with an expectation of doing time. Generations of convicted felons and the burdens of that baggage: banned from public housing, no education, no job prospects, forced into poverty because felons do not get hired easily unless they had a really good work history and training and skill before their convictions. Drug laws create societal welfare dependency across generations. They excel in building hopelessness and long term less public safety rather than more public safety.
But, a lot of people in government and government contractors thrive on the demand for their services the drug war creates. This is why I do not see drug legalization happening. The drug war is a boon for jobs and a slush fund for political favors. It is the EASIEST sale to make to the public, too. It, itself, is the perfect.....well....crime.
Having said that, it is really a good thing that we know this. Not to fight it. But to pray. The tentacles of government, the depth of the domestic intelligence apparatus, are feeding on the drug war to advance the scope of immanent government. In short, it is a tactic of the time of the end. We should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. And, now, we are not. We know. Not so we can vote or protest or write a congressman, but so we can prepare ourselves for what is at the door.