Winning the war on drugs

Great news, guys! The town of Bastrop, Louisiana got an ambulance for their police department. According to the article, this ambulance will be a huge asset in fighting the war on drugs. The article doesn't get much into how - something about vehicular maneuvers - but it makes perfect sense to me. Now if only we could equip all police departments with one ambulance each, as well as several drug testing kits and a few rubber chickens, America's drug war will be won in no time.

Sort of like it's being won in the Midwest, as drug enforcement agents battle the meth epidemic. Although that article from the Baltimore Sun focuses largely on addiction, it does mention some policy failures:

In the two years since the state enacted a law limiting the availability of pseudoephedrine, a major ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine, the number of homemade meth lab seizures across the state has plummeted. At the same time, though, investigators say imports of a more powerful meth called "ice," from the Southwest U.S. and Mexico, are soaring.

Fancy that.

The article's case study conveys the view that use of drugs - any use of any drug, not just meth - will result in the user looking like him, a 25-year meth addict. He tells this to his five-year-old. As any member of the DARE generation can testify, even protective lies can be dangerous.