It was 40 years ago today that the country's president, Richard M. Nixon, declared the wildly successful war on drugs. Today drug use is virtually nonexistent. No longer do thugs hang out on street corners peddling their evil wares, and no longer are pot heads walking free.

The war, which has cost the country only about 75 billion dollars annually, could be declared over any day now by President Obama. In fact, he no longer even uses the term "war on drugs."

11% of California's budget now goes to prisons, compared to 7.5% to schools, yet the increased expenses have brought peace to Mexico as the drug cartels found the markets dried up here in the US.

A drug-free rally to celebrate the birthday will be held this afternoon by tens of people at the Starbucks on the National Mall. Free samples of caffeine-laced drinks, the only drug currently available to the American people, will be given to the first 25 in attendance.

More information can be found here, including a detailed analysis on the war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs

Our drug laws are just Jim Crow laws in disguise. They have disenfranchised a generation or two of black men, who have lost their rights to participate in our democracy. Pres Obama, who should be uniquely able to see this, should not let this moral (and financial ) outrage continue for one more minute.

That would make it a HAPPY BIRTHDAY indeed.