Not everyone disagreed with singer Tony Bennett's pleading for the legalization of drugs in lieu of Whitney Houston's tragic death on Saturday. Arianna Huffington insisted Bennett's point was an "absolutely fair" one to make, and that the war on drugs has targeted minorities in America.
"But the point, I think, is absolutely fair, that the war on drugs has failed and we're not acknowledging it," Huffington posed on Monday's Starting Point. [Video below the break.]
She added that the drug wars have especially targeted minorities in America. "[W]e're spending over $50 billion a year fighting a war that's become a war on our own people, especially among African-Americans and minorities in general."
Rolling Stone's Joe Levy added that Bennett "has a point to make" about the drug wars, "which is that it should be about education, not incarceration."
A brief transcript is as follows:
CNN
STARTING POINT
2/13/12
7:14 p.m. EST
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, Huffington Post: But the point, I think, is absolutely fair, that the war on drugs has failed and we're not acknowledging it. That we're spending over $50 billion a year fighting a war that's become a war on our own people, especially among African-Americans and minorities in general.
