Its been almost half a century since Richard Nixon first declared drug abuse Americas public enemy number one. Regardless of the fact that that title passed to Nixon himself shortly after the speech, his words and the harsh enforcement policies that followed them still have an enormous effect on American society. The War on Drugs is a hot topic today, and now cannabis, the drug whose use was most pursued and punished in the War on Drugs, has now been fully legalised in four states and Washington DC. More and more evidence is mounting in recent years that the War on Drugs is an unabashed failure. The American political establishment is realising that raiding people with SWAT teams when they use a plant to treat their epilepsy isnt the most effective way of dealing with intoxicating substances. It seems that the lessons learned during the failed prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s are becoming more concrete and obvious and steadily the American public has turned against the expensive failure that is the Drug War, with the politicians racing to catch up with public opinion. But just because parts of America seems to be cooling off on crazy drug laws, doesnt mean those laws still arent harming people in the USA and outside of it. These are 10 of the craziest drug sentences handed down in the United States and the rest of the world.