The war on drugs was started in 1969 by then President Richard Nixon. I think it’s fair to say that after 40 years, the war has been lost.

History has again repeated itself as we all know that prohibition does not work. This battle has been extremely expensive. Not only with the costs of catching those that buy and sell illegal drugs, prosecuting them and boarding them in our prison systems, but many young lives have been damaged or ruined in this so called war.

According to the War on Drugs Clock, over 13 billion dollars has been spent by the federal government so far this year fighting this battle and this does not take into account the lost revenue of not being able to collect taxes on these drugs. With marijuana consumption being no more harmful than that of alcohol or tobacco, these costs are outrageous when you consider a large amount of them relate directly to enforcing current marijuana laws.

With the state of our economy and the painfully obvious fact that drug enforcement efforts have been a tremendous failure, it’s time that congress start an open and honest debate on the legalization of marijuana. I’m sure if we take a close look, with an open mind, it will reveal what should have been done a long time ago. Marijuana use should not only be legal, but farmers should be allowed to grow it and government should tax it.

Cash for clunkers, National health care, stimulus package, bailouts, mortgage crisis. I have to just say what? Where does it stop? Why did we not know about the money tree in the White House garden. Most of us know what happens after a credit card spending spree where you max out your credit cards. The bills just keep coming and coming and coming. So you take out a second morgage to pay off the credit cards only to find the increase in you’re monthly house payment is just as bad as the credit card debt. The only saving grace is that when you die with all this debt, your offspring are not responsible for paying it off.

Does Obama thinks are children won’t be responsible for the debit he and his Democratic Congress run up after he leaves office? Maybe he thinks the U.S. Government can just file for bankruptcy. Think about that, does it have you saying “Just Say What?”