Sex and Drugs(but not the good kind)

I just read a news story about a convicted sex offender who attempted to rape, then beat and stabbed a thirteen year old girl to death. He was wearing a GPS tracking device as part of his probation for the crime of luring minors with sexual intent. The device allowed police to find him easily enough after the murder, but did nothing to prevent it. I fail to see what good keeping tabs on the whereabouts of a sexual predator does when all that entails is someone checking the data and going, "Yup, he's still in that vacant field." And what really chaps my ass is that while thousands of supposed criminals are taking up space in jails for marijuana offenses, really dangerous wastes of humanity such as this scumbag are given probation and a bracelet most likely because there isn't enough room to put them away. Sometimes I just don't understand the bass-ackward way the American judicial system thinks. Actually, I do understand it, and it makes my brain squirm. It seems to me that the majority of punitive actions involving drugs are done as much, if not more so, for PR purposes than for actual law enforcement. For some reason, Joe the Plumber and his ilk seem to think that smoking weed is tantamount to biting the heads off puppies. The so-called 'war on drugs' is one of the most wasteful, pointless, and dangerous PR scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Yes, some of the illegal drugs are rightfully outlawed. PCP, ecstasy, crack, heroin, and I guess even cocaine are very harmful, but then again so is alcohol and nicotine. In a country where the choice to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle is more and more up to the rider, where is the justification for clogging up our judicial and penal system with drug users? Most of the crime associated with the drug trade would vanish if the stuff wasn't illegal, and then the police forces would be free to pursue real criminals, like murderous pedophiles.

In my opinion, of course.
Marius