It's true that drug war articles are fairly off-topic for HN. I'd rather see more mathematics and CS content.
However, I think it's pretty apparent that ending the drug war would benefit more people in much more profound ways than all of the software everyone on HN has ever written. In fact, I'd say only the computer revolution as a whole has benefited humanity more than ending the drug war would.
If you can't think of a list of 10 things in short order that matter a lot more to the world than software and web startups, you're not trying very hard.
But that doesn't mean HN should be dedicated to those things.
However, I think it's pretty apparent that ending the drug war would benefit more people in much more profound ways than all of the software everyone on HN has ever written. In fact, I'd say only the computer revolution as a whole has benefited humanity more than ending the drug war would.