The Eternal Drug War

Unsurprising news from the front:

A survey of 17 countries has found that despite its punitive drug policies the United States has the highest levels of illegal cocaine and cannabis use...

The authors found that 16.2% of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetime, a level much higher than any other country surveyed (the second highest level of cocaine use was in New Zealand, where 4.3% of people reported having used cocaine). Cannabis use was highest in the US (42.4%), followed by New Zealand (41.9%).

Andrew Sullivan, as always, sums things up perfectly:

And the high drug use becomes the reason to keep at it. Perfect if you like endless war - and Washington clearly does. It's more powerful that way.

That's right, as soon as we kill every terrorist on the planet and wipe out poverty forever we'll win this war against drugs; sometimes the ignorance of this country truly astounds me.