Let’s look at it’s components, the organs that sustain the war. That would be the diverse  groups  who have an interest  in keeping it going. Let’s do a rough accounting of these folks and describe who they are.

In this corner we have:

Law enforcement— from the cop on the beat to sheriffs, police chiefs,  prison guards, judges, bailiffs, coroners, administrators, detectives, and so many more–not solely promoting the drug war but heavily reliant on  jobs that  the war on drugs mass produces.      Don’t get me wrong–many of these career minded folks hate the drug war as much as we do–go to LEAP.org–Law Enforcement Against Prohibition—hundreds of thousands of cops who’d love to see Prohibition2  end right now.

Now imagine how many people world-wide make some part of their income enforcing drug laws –it would have to be in the 100’s of millions.  Take a look  for yourself:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_state_and_local_law_enforcement_agencies

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2216

The DEA:  I won’t bother with a long write-up here but you might check these links out to grasp how entrenched and all-reaching this mega-institution has become:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.htmlpagewanted=all&_r=0

     http://www.allgov.com/departments/department-of-justice/us-drug-enforcement-administration-dea?agencyid=7195 

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/drug-enforcement-administration-dea-overview.html

http://www.dea.gov/about/Domesticoffices.shtml

And check these monsters out:

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/DEA/a0719/final.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Enforcement_Administration

When I scan these links , I ‘m not sure there’s any way to  dismantle  or even downsize such an entity. It’s a holocaust machine on steroids!  We’re going to need a think tank of PHD’s  to tackle this  institution.
More players:  Here’s four more:

http://reason.com/archives/2012/04/22/4-industries-getting-rich-off-the-drug-w/

And more:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/national-drug-control-strategy

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2012/WDR_2012_web_small.pdf

And I’m far from done here! More to come!

 

 

 

 

 

WOW–a whole lot of people with a vested interest in the drug war Debacle.  It’d almost  be  “sad”   to  downsize  such a vast  component  of our  modern society.   We haven’t even scratched the surface of this economic pie chart,  but I plan to have  many pie charts on the walls of the War Room.  You see, we can’t really dismantle the war if we don’t know what it’s parts are.

 

Ok you smart asses–let’s just change the laws!  It’s not so easy my friends–is it?                      Folks, I’ve got to get some sleep for now—this damn weblog is surely an exhilaration but ZZZZZZZ’s are good too. Good night for now. Much more to come! 

Co-authors and contributors welcome!