The “War on Drugs” has been so woefully ineffective that it makes one wonder what its true motivations are. Even a dog can eventually learn from an electric fence, so why not the US government? Is the goal really to reduce drug use, or to segregate society and vilify the disadvantaged? A combination of mandatory minimum sentences and other unjust laws has led to a huge increase in the U.S. prison population. Under these laws, 60 percent of the federal prison population in 1999 was made up of nonviolent drug offenders. In 1997, about twice as many people were arrested for drug crimes as for violent crimes. times higher than that of most industrialized countries. In fact, in 2000 the United States surpassed Russia to become the nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world. A side effect of this huge prison population boom has been an increase in spending on prison construction. Since it is primarily college-age youth who end up in these prisons, fiscal planners have found that the most logical place to acquire the funds needed to build prisons is in higher education. In fact, there was a direct trade-off in spending: In 1995, federal funding for university construction fell from $954 million to $2.5 billion, while federal funding for prison construction increased from $926 million to $2.6 billion. These numbers are huge. They reveal that in one year the federal government reallocated more than a quarter of total university construction spending toward prison construction. The laws are unjust in other ways, too: They disproportionately target minorities and the poor while turning a blind eye to the rich. . On paper, these laws... middle of paper... a cost-effective approach to the war on drugs. It can hardly be a coincidence that the percentage of American citizens who smoke marijuana is twice the percentage of Amsterdam citizens who smoke marijuana, even though marijuana is legal in Amsterdam. The criminalization of drug use has placed its regulation in the hands of corrupt forces. who are above the law. The same law that puts the drug dealer in prison empowers another drug dealer by eliminating competition and strengthening his control over his territory. As long as there is demand for drugs, there will be supply. The problem with criminalizing drugs is that it does nothing to address the needs of addiction. It is necessary to recognize that drug use can be reduced without resorting to imprisonment, that fighting a war on drugs is the surest way to lose all government control over drug use..