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I have mixed feelings about the war on drugs. part of it is fundamental. How can a Land of "Freedom" and "Liberty" permit federal government intrusion into individual lives? Yet, I recognize that many drugs have become root cause issues in types of major crimes. Where is the dividing line?

>>Yet, I recognize that many drugs have become
root cause issues in types of major crimes.<<

Actually, it's the very fact that they are illegal and expensive that makes them root causes. Kind of like alcohol was during prohibition. And all prohibition got us was organized crime, unlike the drug war. Wait a second...

I should point out that my take on drug use is that it is one of the stupidest things (yes, I do mean STUPID) that a human being can do. But this is SUPPOSED to be a free country so I say let them do it. If they then go out and break some other law, well, that's a separate issue.

I prefer hanging around people who do what I'd to because that's their choice, not because their mom, the government, makes them do it.

The dividing line should be the Constitution--in the way it seperates federal power from those retained by the states in the 9th & 10th Amendments, in addition to Article I, Section 8. The Constitution is clear on the crimes it gives Washington the power to punish: treason, bribery, counterfeiting the current coin & securities of the U.S., piracies & felonies committed on the high seas, offenses against the Law of Nations, preventing blacks & women from their right to vote (15th &19th Amendments, respectively), & possibly one or 2 more. THAT'S IT!

The 9th & 10th Amendments already assume that the states, or the people, have the right to govern themselves & are free to decide their own drug laws (remember, the Founders knew that our rights come from GOD, not government!). So if one state decides to make drugs legal, that is their right--while if another state chooses to prohibit & punish drug use severely, that is their right as well. We live under a FEDERAL system of government, not a national system where Congress knows what is best for us.