Election time rapidly approaches. Sadly, in the race for president this year the major parties have out done themselves in picking puppets that will do the bidding of their corporate masters. Still, there is much more at stake on Nov 7th this year in the State of California.

As usual for a presidential election, there are several very important propositions on the ballot. One of them is 36 - which attempts to reverse the ineffectual and horribly expensive tend of imprisoning people for Substance Abuse. Or in laymen's terms... drugs.

Now I'm not gonna start on a big libertarian rant that people should be able to put whatever poisons they want into their bodies. Instead, I want to focus on a couple of other key issues.

The first is that incarceration does not help people get over their drug addictions. Treatment helps them get over drug addictions. Prop 36 mandates that only NON-VIOLENT drug offender be sent to treatment not to prison. Not only does this allow them a real opportunity to get over their problems, but is far more cost effective then locking them up. Bad people, druggies or not, still go to jail.

Second, the War on Drugs is being lost. LOST I TELL YOU. We, the most powerful nation ever are losing the War on Drugs. In this war we've completely trashed the Constitution, including the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and the 14th Amendments. And still we losing. It is time abandon this fruitless and destructive strategy as well as reclaim our Constitution. Prop 36, unfortunately, won't accomplish that, but it is the first of many steps in the right direction.

Finally, akin to President Eisenhower's warning about the Military/Industrial Complex - it should be pointed out the biggest supporters of the No on 36 campaign are the incredible powerful and politically connected Prison Guard Unions - or the Prison/Industrial Complex. There are certainly segments of the population that gain from having a massive number of prisoners. This is shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Nor should the fact both the corporations and the unions that inhabit this area have invested massive resources to defeat this proposition, but have historically done all they can to INCREASE the number of people behinds BARS!!! I think the Prison Guards Union isn't gonna be happy until EVERYONE is locked up. Fuck, how did we ever let prisons become a GROWTH industry.