President Obama has submitted his 2013 budget proposal and when it comes to the War on Drugs, it’s eerily similar to his other budgets.

Overall spending for the drug war is up 1.6% from last year, with over 58% of that funding going to law enforcement efforts instead of treatment, a ratio that has improved only slightly under Obama. All told, this useless war would get almost $26 billion.

The Justice Department alone would get $7.85 billion, up almost $400 million from FY 2012, with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the DEA among those Justice components seeing funding increases. BOP spending would increase by about 8%, while the DEA budget would increase from $2.35 million to $2.38 million. On the other hand, the National Drug Intelligence Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which lost its congressional patron with the death of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), has been zeroed out.

More money for the DEA to go arrest people to fill up more prisons, which we can build more of.

So the hamster wheel keeps spinning and non-violent “offenders” are the hamster. A select few get rich, some politicians get to posture about being tough on crime, and millions of lives are ruined. All in the name of controlling what adults do in the privacy of their own home.

Sometimes it seems like the madness will never end. Will enough of you stand up and make your voice heard to end it?

- Joe Klare