For over four decades, this country waged a misguided War on Drugs, which was a miserable failure. This "war" cost this country trillions of dollars and put thousands upon thousand of our young men and women in prison for possession of small amounts of drugs. Many of these young people suffered from an addiction, and medical treatment and education would have been more beneficial than prison, but that is not what happened.

During this time, we saw the advent of the militarized police SWAT teams barging in on citizens and an attack on the Fourth Amendment. At the same time, private prisons began to emerge to house the many people convicted for drugs.

The government for years used faulty scientific studies and played hard and fast with the rules to demonize marijuana and its users. If some of you are old enough and you ever get the chance, there is a movie called "Reefer Madness" that displays the total ignorance of the issue.

Here it is on youtube:

http://tinyurl.com/l7qebzj

Just watch a few minutes of that foolishness. At the time, in 1937, many people thought that movie was a true representation of the effects of Marijuana.

Now people are beginning to wise up and see the folly of our failed "War on Drugs." Yes, this war is till going, but it has dissipated considerably in the last several years.

Not to worry, folks, we have a new war, a war against an enemy so insidious and powerful that it is enabling perverts and pedophiles to steal our children's future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sarcasm off) It is a new and improved war. It is called the War on Child Pornography.

The government is using the same methods to vilify child porn defendants as they did years ago to demonize drug users----faulty statistics, sensational reporting, and just a general state of incorrect facts that are not supported by legitimate research.

And not to worry folks, the government is now using its same tried and true methods to carry out this War on Child Pornography. Police SWAT teams, the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment, propaganda in the media, and loooooooooong prison sentences.

I do not support true child pornography; nobody does. But the punishments for possession are absolutely ridiculous.

Some of the images that are deemed as child pornography in a legal sense are not what most people think of when they hear the words child pornography. A young man taking a picture of his girlfriend coming out of the shower with a towel around her waist and her breasts exposed may legally be child pornography, but c'mon people, labeling that as child porn is just insane. There are other examples and I am sure a few of the posters can cite examples.

It is just as much an outrage to place a young man in prison for several years for LOOKING, only looking, at a naughty picture of an underage person as it was twenty years ago when the country locked up minor drug defendants for many years for possession of marijuana. In both instances, the general public agreed with the government because they people have been progagandized to belive that all marijuana users were potential drug kingpins and all defendants in a child pornography case are all potential perverts just waiting to nab one of their children to rape them.

There is nothing really scientific about this. The War on Drugs has morphed into the War on Child Pornography.

You see, we always have to have a "war" in this country going. There has to be a continuing war to feed billions and billions of dollars in the form of federal grants to feed groups like law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And hell, let's not forget private prison corporations. They surely want their piece of the pie. After all, they lobby hard for more laws which will keep their prisons full and making the most profit.

This country is a joke and a laughingstock to any other civilized nation in the world. The America I once knew has become so damn disgusting that I don't even watch the news anymore.

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