More than 80 years ago, California's legendary U.S. Sen. Hiram Johnson said, "The first casualty of war is the truth."

And so it is in the war being waged against the war on drugs. In truth, the combat catchall is a misnomer, as America is fond of applying military metaphors to serial social undertakings. See previous "wars" on poverty, hunger, inflation, homelessness, etc.

As we've known wars hot and cold, perhaps now we have something in between: a tepid tussle, seeking to stamp out not a foreign enemy, nor a domestic malady, but a flawed human condition.

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