Question: In the 1920's, our country enacted prohibition of alcohol. This led to violent crime and a soaring prison population of non-violent offenders at the public's expense. Will you allow us to continue making this mistake with the War on Drugs? Answer: No I would not, to the extent that it would be in my power to do anything about it. Our current policy meets the definition of insanity: We keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The current drug war, which began as a cynical and racist campaign ploy is now 40 years old. Our incarceration rate has risen 535% since 1970. This has spawned 800000 gang members, contempt for the law, organized crime, and soaring law enforcement expenditures. Study after study says that prohibition does not work. It didn't work with alcohol prohibition and it doesn't work with drug prohibition. It is also unconstitutional, which is why the first prohibition took the 18th Amendment to enact it, and the 21st Amendment to end it. Our incarceration rate is 7 times higher than the Netherlands where marijuana and even hard drugs are decriminalized for users. There has never been a documented overdose death from marijuana in all of recorded history, yet alcohol and tobacco kill 550000 per year in the US alone. Aspirin and Tylenol probably kill as many people as all illegal drugs combined, not counting the homicides and tainted drug issues related to the drug war. Prohibition only increases the negative effects of ...