On the 6th of November Congressman Dan Lungren lost his bid for re-election. His Democratic challenger, Ami Bera, beat him by near 3%. When I read this I felt such a deep pang of remorse that I almost fell off my chair laughing. Why is this of consequence?

It means that the winds of change really are blowing! Good on you Huffington Post! When I about it [in Dan Lungren, Drug Warrior, Loses Bid For Reelection] the day was instantly brighter.  

So why is it so good to see the back of Congressman Dan?

Ever since being elected in 1978 Dan Lungren was perhaps the most deluded and despicable of all of the Drug War Warriors. He stood next to Ronald and Nancy and whispered in their ears. 'Eliminate this scourge' was his council always.

The ‘war on drugs’ was Dan’s schtick! The Lungren recipe was  simple, brutal & lunatic. Dan got hold of the issue and pumped it for dear life. Making his career out of it. We are all the poorer for his efforts.

Over the years Lungren dreamed up some of the most odious of all of the American ‘get tough on crime’ measures.  Novel innovations like enabling prosecutors to appeal sentences, letting municipalities confiscate and keep ‘proceeds of crime’, forcing the refusal of bail for certain ‘drug’ crimes, and increasing penalties for all sorts of minor drug offenses. Practices that were instantly adopted all around the world by many thug regimes, tinpot dictators, banana republic's - and the Australian Government.

In the end all that I will venture is that Dan Lungren really did help populate America’s prisons.

It is fitting that, at the same election in which Mr Lungren was defeated, pot was legalized in two American States.

Goodbye Dan.

I hope I never hear from you again.