VP Biden is on a tour of Central America this week spreading the non-news that the American leadership intends to remain deaf to the chorus of voices calling for a reappraisal of the war on drugs.
It's becoming quite a chorus. Sitting and former political leaders throughout the region are uniting as never before in calling for the legalization of recreational drugs. That's not about to disuade our rich white guys in the Senate and in Congress from pursuing the path of prohibition.
Why?
Because rich white guys are never hassled about their drug use. If you're a Senator or a Congressman neither you nor the folks you socialize with are at risk for a headline-grabbing career-ending dope bust. You've got immunity.
Drug busts are for the masses. Drug laws are a tool to keep the boot of authority on the neck of the working class and the poor.
And what a great tool it is. Keeps hundreds of thousands of cops and lawyers and judges busy. Keeps for-profit jails full and their owners in dividends. Keeps the criminal cartels intact. As a high-profile threat to our "way of life" those cartels serve a useful purpose; they legitimize enormous expenditures on law enforcement.
Meanwhile, after forty years, the "war on drugs" has yet to make the slightest dent on the supply of drugs anywhere.
But our leaders are determined to stay the course.
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