The War on Drugs sounds wonderful in theory (in much the same way that being tough on crime sounds wonderful in theory), but it completely ignores the dynamics of why the drug trade exists and what it looks like. And let's get one thing straight right off the bat: the drug trade exists because people like doing drugs. This life is hard for some people. Drugs make it easier to get by. This life is boring sometimes, and drugs make it interesting. People like drugs. Period.

Not everybody, but enough people that you have a small scale civil war in Mexico driven by the wealth and power of drug cartels. And that's who you want to get rid of. But the question we need to ask is: how? I think you do it by legalizing and regulating every step, from production to transportation to distribution. Some people just really, really like heroin. Their money will be spent on heroin whether we like it or not. That money can either be used to pay the salary of a pharmacy worker and an honest field laborer, as well as taxed, or it can line the pockets, and fill the rooms of a cartel lord. In my honest opinion, the choice is obvious.

Let me be clear: I do not in any way condone the use of hard drugs. I've done cocaine, and it was a big mistake. I think we need to do a better job of teaching people what drugs actually do, so they make better choices about drugs. But for people who do make the choice to partake in hard drugs, we need to accept that it is their personal decision to make, and we need to make absolutely sure that the money they spend on drugs are not going into the wrong hands.

And that's the hard stuff. Marijuana should simply be treated and regulated in the same way that alcohol and cigarettes are, since of those three things marijuana is by far the most harmless.