NEW SOLDIERS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE DRUG WAR

Profound thanks are due televangelist Pat Robertson for stating so
clearly what many of us have been screaming for years: that the
criminalization of marijuana is a plague on young people. May he lend
courage to politicians who know better but won't do the right thing
for fear of seeming "soft" on drugs.

"We're locking up people who take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and
the next thing they know, they've got 10 years," Robertson said on
his Christian Broadcasting Network show, "The 700 Club." These are
mandatory sentences, he adds, that absurd laws force on judges.

Robertson does not call for legalization of all drugs, as do many
disillusioned law enforcers, judges and prominent economists of all
political stripes. He does say that criminalizing the possession of
small amounts of pot is "costing us a fortune, and it's ruining young people."

Where are the foes of big government in this? They should note that
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's budget has more than
quadrupled over the decade to $2.6 billion, without making a dent in
the quantity of illegal drugs sold in this country. (The narcotics,
meanwhile, are more potent than ever.) The agency now operates 86
offices in 63 countries and runs a shadow State Department that at
times mucks up American diplomacy. It employs nearly 11,000 people.

And the DEA is but one expense in the drug war. Add in the costs of
local law enforcement to round up suspects, courts to prosecute them
and jails to hold them, and the war on drugs weighs in at about $50
billion a year. States and municipalities bear most of the costs.

If drugs were legalized, narco-terrorists (including the Taliban)
would lose their chief source of funds, drug gangs would go out of
business, and the drug-fueled bloodbath now tormenting Mexico would
end. Border security would vastly tighten as drug traffic dried up.

Ending the war on drugs has support across the political spectrum.
Many on the left regard America's drug laws as an assault on personal
freedom and racist in their application. Prominent voices on the
right ---- for example, William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman ----
long ago declared the war on drugs a dismal failure.

Then there's the rank hypocrisy. President Obama admits to having
"tried" cocaine, and President George W. Bush all but did, refusing
to answer questions about his previous drug use. Yet we still ruin
the lives of teenagers caught using or dealing in far less dangerous marijuana.

The injustice of this is what aroused Pat Robertson. A social
conservative has now filled a gap in the anti-drug-war lineup of
liberals, economic conservatives and libertarians. And we welcome him.