John Tierney on Limbaugh: A Taste of His Own Medicine

Rush Limbaugh and others need to face up to the truth that the "war on drugs" is a failure and work for an end to drug prohibition so that the $35 billion per year wasted on the "war on drugs" can be used to fight real crimes such as murder and rape.

"He has portrayed himself as the victim of a politically opportunistic prosecutor determined to bag a high-profile trophy, which is probably true. But that’s standard operating procedure in the drug war supported by Limbaugh and his fellow conservatives.

Drug agents and prosecutors are desperate for headlines because they have so little else to show for their work. The drug war costs $35 billion a year and has yet to demonstrate any clear long-term benefits — precisely the kind of government boondoggle that conservatives like Limbaugh ought to view skeptically.

Yet conservatives go on giving more money and more power to the drug cops. When critics complained about threats to civil liberties in the USA Patriot Act, President Bush defended it by noting that the government was already using some of these powers against drug dealers. Why worry about snooping on foreign terrorists when we’ve already been doing it to Americans?"

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