War on Drugs

"Who's kidding whom? We're having a War on Drugs? The biggest American industry in dollar volume, number of employees, and persons and even nations directly or indirectly affected by it, is the thwarting or bankrolling, manufacture, shipping, and sales, wholesale and retail, of mind-bending, mood-enhancing, or blackout chemicals, including alcohol. Half the banks and brokerages in California and Florida would go bust if it weren't for invested profits from the drug trade. But don't worry: The War on Drugs might as well be a war on glaciers, with the soldiers armed with ice picks and smoking joints."

-- from "If God Were Alive Today," the last (and unfinished) novel by Kurt Vonnegut