>Good article.
>www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/06/20/here-are-all-the-ways-jeff-sessions-is-wrong-about-drug-sentencing/

That war was on drugs from day one. Some heavy ones, I'd guess.

I've read some historical interpretations where the WoD was actually a way to arrest as many black people as possible, keep them under police scrutiny and watch for any leaders that may appear.

On the surface, the gov't was to be seen as doing something about the problem, the success being perversely measured by the number of arrests. And now after some fifty years of this never ending war, they want to do the same thing again. Probably with same expectations as the last time - to have a simple thing they do, which they can show the public for the next fifty years.

But hey, prison labor is cheaper than sweatshops in Asia, and the transportation cost is nil.