In 1980 the US prison population was 350,000. Though crime rates have remained the same or even dropped in many areas, the number of incarcerated has risen to 2.3 million today. The War on Drugs has made up the difference. Erosion of 4th Amendment Rights, racial profiling and arbitrary prosecutorial power to charge defendants of their choice, the primary target has historically been people of color.  With few arrests ever going to trail in the face of mandatory minimum sentences, an entire plea bargained under caste of second class citizens has resulted of possession of even marijuana and low level, first time offenders, according to Michelle Alexander's, The New Jim Crow.

Denied public housing, discriminated by private landlords, removed from the possibility of food stamps or assistance and required to list felonies on Job applications, release from prison shuts convicts out of the economy and mainstream society.

This currently amounts to 5.1 million people who are legally segregated in a manner that Jim Crow laws had done for 100 years.  As such, The War on Drugs is nothing short of a crime against humanity and must end.