According to a piece in the May issue of "Reason," the budget for drug enforcement and treatment has gone from $65 million in 1969 to $19.2 billion in 2003.

In a separate comment in the same magazine, it is noted that the Office of Management and Budget has stated that the DEA "is unable to demonstrate progress in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the United States."

To put it more briefly, as far as money spent vs. results obtained, the DEA sucks doorknobs even worse than the Department of Education. And at least the DOE is supposed to be doing something useful.

The sooner the War On Some Drugs is quietly folded up and put away, the better. At least they could decriminalize some of the more benign ones, just to see what happens.