The U.S. prison population continues to grow, fueled by people incarcerated because they are addicted to meth and other drugs. At last count, this country is up to 2.2 million in prison, the highest incarceration numbers in the world.

This is the unfortunate legacy of Ronald Reagan and others who followed him. Before Reagan took office, there were 1,500 U.S. attorneys. Today, there are more than 7,000 federal prosecutors who constantly are on the hunt for new prey, trying to find how they can morph any action by anyone into a federal crime.

Steven Greenhut once wrote that people in this country are "living off the fumes" of the fuel of freedom that once was part of what was the United States. Today, we incarcerate more people than any other country on the planet, and the U.S. Government is constantly in search of new wars, new empires, and new ways to make everyone else hate us.