In this speech, he mentioned that the US has 7.5 times more prisoners incarcerated now than when he left office in 1980. That's largely attribuTable to drug-related convictions. We're #1. rah.

regarding the the status of the US war on drugs. I came across an article in TIME magazine, I think, that stated that the US has only 5% of the world's population, yet 25% of the world's prisoners.

A significant amount of our prisoner population results from the mandatory sentencing guidelines related to the possession, use and sale of drugs. It costs about $77,000.00/year to imprison someone in a maximum security prison facility.......

I learned so much and got so pissed off by what I learned - a multi-billion dollar industry has arisen from sending and keeping people in prison.

[link:|

There is so much money to be made from the operation of and supply to prisons. Combined with prison labour for manufacturing, etc., these numbers appearr to be a very significant fraction of monies spent in the US. Prison labour for manufacturing also has the added advantage that it helps set the wage bar lower for the rest of the population.

This then brings to mind the recent proposals to drug-test those people receiving public assistance. The beneficiaries would seem most likely not be the public in general, but those running the testing labs and rehabilitation programs.

We must have the least cost effective govt in the history of man.

Back when Reagan conjured up the "welfare queen."

should simply make all drugs legal? only certain drugs legal? and how exactly should that money saved be directed?

it is not that I disagree entirely but I am wondering about your thoughts on this?

Decriminalize the use of ALL drugs.
De-fund the drug czar's office.
Spend money on prevention programs for actual, dangerous drugs
Don't permit alcohol, pharmaceutical, and prison-related interests to lobby against marijuana.

That would be a good start. Now it's your turn.

Give me valid reasons that you're defending this monstrous, life-destroying, money-wasting, pocket-lining, corruption-enabling set of laws and programs we call the Drug War. Your kind of thinking has destroyed a lot of lives, and you and other drug warriors no longer have carte blanche to act like the good guys in white hats. You've left too many broken people in your trail in the interests of gittin' tough on crime.

I was asking the OP directly , unless of course you are accusing for him?

Next, make your signature line readable, and I'll be glad to read it. I like Morgan Freeman too. And Tim Robbins.

You still owe the readers of this thread an answer, drug warrior.

and just for you I made my line quite readable it was actually the original that I used for months be sure to get back to me or will your patently false accusations be taken as your version of discussion? eta I owe you and the readers here squat I asked a question that put you on the attack why? who doesn't want to answer?

Have the courage of your convictions and say what you mean, or refuse to, but don't try to make me responsible for your choice.

Thanks for making your sig picture readable. I'm glad we can at least agree on the message contained therein.

I think my sig line speaks for me but please do not let that stop you lol

apparently someone doesn't want to answer the question as I said I asked the OP

And you also got a pointed set of questions asked of you in return. You're not going to answer those questions, which is of course your right. But it's also telling, almost as telling as responding initially to an outrageous graph that really does encapsulate the drug war in one picture, by telling the OP, "I don't disagree with EVERYTHING you say...". You came into this thread to defend that graph, at least in part (since you don't disagree with everything the OP says). I like weed too, by the way, but this is about much more than me and my personal recreational favorite.

the other one I answered the question as it was posed in a civil rather then false accusing manner perhaps you shouyld go back and reread my original comment and start over your replies seem an obvious attempt to put me on the defensive and really just not working out all too well, as I owe you no answet and at this point IMO you owe me an apology

I looked back. I will admit the obvious--I don't know very much about you. I was pretty acerbic, and I'm sorry for pushing that too far. I haven't changed my mind about the WOD, and you obviously do support big portions of it, but I am sorry for being too strident with you.

the biggest5 portion of it is being spent on marijuana and it is a waste of $$$$$$$, for something that should be legal,and is IMO less harmful than alcohol, and no I'm not sayin' that should be illegal it was tried and failed now drugs such as meth ice a concentrated meth derivative, crack those should all be illegal and opiate pain killers should remain controlled

Meth would be one, Ice a concentrated meth derivative is another, opiate pain killers should be controlled as I personally know 3 people who are medically addicted, but the biggest expenditure is marijuana which IMO should be legal.

Decriminalize them and if someone has a substance abuse problem treat it like the medical condition that it is.

manufacturers meth labs create toxic waste dumps out of where ever it is being made and the dealers are often too put it mildly unsavory characters, add to that crack which I have watched destroy entire neighborhoods not to mention lives, when it comes to users your correct but not so much when it comes to those that are actually making the $$$$ off of it being illegal

I don't profess a legal opinion on dealers. I see both sides of that situation. I think ruining lives with felonies is a major no brainer for the average users though.

getting the dealers out is yet another problem, they will always exist in one form or another legal or not

No exploding double wides. No poison crank zombies. It is the illegality that causes the most damage. Yes some people will wreck themselves on crank, but they already do, at least they could have access to uncontaminated drugs produced using safe processes.

Same with opiates. We make one generation of processed opiates illegal while selling the next generation as pain killers. The safest form was the original smokable opium tar. Let the addict population have access to an uncontaminated legal source, stop treating them as criminals.

Thanks!

over what we put in our bodies.

The flowers are so beautiful and the opium is really quite nice. I like to make tea from the whole plant, when the pods are ripe. That is a far cry from producing heroin, although I do think heroin should be legal as well. Harm reduction would result.

It's total bullshit that people can't grow pot or poppies. Arrogant humans have no right to declare these awesome plants illegal. The laws are so stupid that people simply ignore them, as they should.

Use all those saved billions to fund better drug treatment.

how else to get people to give up their liberties?

They demonized natural substances AND stole our freedoms.
Turned citizen upon citizen, ruined families, shot dogs and people, destroyed the 4th amendment, stole possessions, and claimed they were helping.

The few people that saw through it when it could have made a difference were ridiculed and shamed. Sound familiar?

Now the president himself can't be bothered to answer the question if he thinks he has the power to assassinate at will. It's a brave new world!

We're going to have to rely on the Sullivan Law to stop black people and Hispanics in New York City... Where does the insanity end?

Get caught with some weed, go to jail, where you can work for some corporation for pennies per hour, or perhaps even for free (!), in exchange for time off your sentence. Wait till American workers have to compete with that on a regular basis.

This graphic makes me ill. The war on drugs makes me

and they are paying good money to our Congress critters to keep it going.

Prohibition is a self-validating monument to the narrow-minded, repressed nature of Americans in general. We were settled by people too, dim-witted and rigid to be accepted by any civilized nation on earth, so they came here and killed the good-natured people that were here already in gratitude for saving their dumb asses from their own ignorance.

It's been down hill ever since.

It comes, but ever so slowly and incrementally, and every year another million and a half drug arrests.

I'd like to see these guys run a 40 yard dash

to maximize profits in private prisons and to enhance free labor aka slavery by any means, then it worked real well.

I'll take "paid for the invasion of Iraq" for 500, Alex. Oh, look, the Daily Double. How nice for me=)

that much money (cost-controlled) is about 25 YEARS of Universal Health Care in this country, too.

--the citizenry loses safety, health and lives while the government refuses to serve us. This is yet another example of money trumping lives, another example of a program that has lost it's mission. If the mission is actually public safety, then the program needs a complete overhaul.

The DEA and militarized police are not helping either--even if they shifted toward meth and other hard drugs instead of pot, we would still be having drones and SWAT home invasions. The 1.5 trillion dollars feeds back into the system to pay off government and to make even more sophisticated war equipment --this is not America.

Legalizing pot will be good for economy and for health. But this war industry is a monster that has gotten out of control--war destroys lives--it cannot by nature build anything--and we have a lot of work to do.

Imagine all of this money funding education and infrastructure--preparing for the rising seas and green programs--putting Americans to work. Imagine that we can make desalination plants, plant forests and change the ecosystem. This is what we need to be doing NOW and these criminals are getting in the way.

If you say the average over 40 years is roughly $10B, then that is how I get $400B. I don't see $1.5T. Not sure how inflation may be accounted for though.

rich people richer is the most important thing in the world.

I would like to see a similar graph on Portugal.

After all, hasn't the 1% pretty much admitted that their "Plan" is to
hire 1/2 of US citizens to oppress, murder, criminalize the other 1/2.

Everything's apparently going swimmingly, just according to the
"plans" laid out some time ago, it would seem.

IMO

There are only so many countries that can afford to, or want to, subscribe to our "weapons of the month" club. If we don't have enough external customers, then by all means, let's cultivate our home-grown internal customers, namely American Police and Sheriff's Departments. Surely they need assault riffles and armored personnel carriers. There are larger municipalities already considering incorporating drones into their "war on whatever" arsenals.

the definition of insanity.
The Dept. Of Justice has all the figures on all aspects of the War on Drugs;
Direct Federal budget expenditures, about 20+ billion per year.
The usage of each drug which for years has somewhat mirrored the increase in population.
The explosion of state prison populations started in the mid 1980's due to Federal mandatory prison sentences for drug crimes.
As someone else posted, follow the money, this is of particular interest when private corporations see the money making possibilities in managing, operating and owning prisons.
Decriminalize drugs and treat drug usage as a medical matter.

that ammount of money could have flown a lot of people to the moon and back