If you all like this, I’ll be featuring stories about the War on Drugs here on a weekly basis. Let me know what you think.

Today I have four stories about the War on Drugs and its true impact on our society.

First, Radley Balko is in the middle of researching the proliferation of SWAT teams, primarily as a result of the War on Drugs. One of the things they’ve been able to do is “no-knock” warrants, where they don’t even bother knocking or announcing themselves before kicking the door in. Balko takes a look at one important case where the police served a warrant illegally. Normally, when this happens, the evidence gets thrown out as tainted. But not in the War on Drugs, it seems.

In addition, Balko chronicles the innocent victims of the War on Drugs, and not all of them are people. Even completely innocent people who have never touched drugs have had SWAT teams break in and shoot the family dog.

One of the legal, er, innovations to come out of the War on Drugs is asset forfeiture. This is when the government seizes everything you own if you’re accused of a drug crime, making it harder to pay for a lawyer to defend yourself. You don’t have to be convicted in order to lose everything; just having the accusation made is enough, and even if you’re cleared, you may never see your money and your property again. Now the government is going so far as to rip the gold teeth right out of people’s heads to seize their assets.

Finally, President George W. Bush has proclaimed Tuesday, April 11, 2006 as National D.A.R.E. Day. Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a government program intended to spread misinformation about drugs to children in school.