War on Drugs: The Price Tag

America can’t afford marijuana prohibition – it’s a matter of dollars and sense.

By Anita Bartholomew, January 14, 2009




With our economy going to pot, President-elect Obama has promised a “top-to-bottom audit to eliminate spending for programs that don’t work.” So, here’s a sane, simple proposal to save the country billions of dollars a year: end the war on marijuana users.

This failed and counter-productive program is an assault on people who pose virtually no threat to themselves or anyone else, certainly no more than that all-American "Joe Sixpack" revered in our recent presidential election.

Yet, getting caught with a few seeds or trace marijuana residue on a pipe is enough in some jurisdictions to trigger an arrest. Most who favor continuing the war assume that law enforcement focuses on sweeping up kingpins and members of cartels. But, here’s a sobering statistic. Of the 872,000 arrests in 2007 for marijuana-related offenses, almost 90 percent were for simple possession of the dried vegetation in question. The typical arrestee is younger than 30. Think college-age kid caught lighting up a joint. Now, multiply that by 775,000 — that’s where a significant chunk of your drug war dollars are going.

The price of deploying an army of local, state and federal cops, prosecutors and guards to arrest, try and imprison the perpetrators of this non-scourge? Using data from 2000, Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated it as $7.7 billion4 per year while a 2007 study, by public policy expert Jon Gettman, figured it closer to $10.7 billion 5 per year.

Most of that money is eaten up by law enforcement according to Miron, with $2.94 billion going to prosecution costs in 2000, and less than half a billion toward incarceration.

Add in the revenue we’d eventually gain if marijuana were regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco (from $6.2 billion to as much as $31.1 billion per year), and you’re talking real money.

EX-COPS EXPRESS REGRETS ABOUT A FAILED WAR

David Doddridge took pride in his work for most of his 21-year career with the LAPD. But when, five years before his retirement, he got transferred into narcotics, he began to feel he was doing more harm than good.

Cops see the collateral damage done by the drug war, costs that don’t show up on anyone’s budget analysis and are paid, not just by those arrested for the high crime of preferring a doobie to a Bud Lite, but by their families: The father whose car is confiscated when junior gets pulled over by an officer with a nose for burnt herb. The daughter who tries to buy medical marijuana – because it’s the only medicine that relieves her parent’s chemotherapy-induced nausea – and gets arrested in the process. The children who get shuffled from foster home to foster home while mom serves time.

“One of the first things that struck me as a narcotics officer was the tremendous amount of damage we were doing to the social structure – homes, families, children, parents,” says Doddridge. “I look back and still see the faces of the people I arrested and threw in jail.”

http://www.culture11.com/article/36438?from=feature

Here's a place we can CUT SPENDING!

:hippie: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :patriot: :patriot:

Its no just marijuana users. Its all recreational drugs. Not just users, but the importation, manufacture, distribution and sale. All of that enforcement is money wasted. It creates multiple criminal classes by defining what they do as crime. Much in the same way that prohibition on alcohol did.

end the freakin' bogus 'war' on drugs. Legalize and regulate marijuana just like alcohol. The benefits are multi-fold. It's such a SIMPLE solution.

Do it. Do it now.

a 2nd paraphenelia offense is a FELONY...yep, that's right. Get nailed twice with a piece and you're a FELON!!! It's the same mentality that voted for Bush twice AND McCain.

That's another felony charge for each! Then there's another felony charge for papers or a pipe. :crazy:

--imm

That while I agree with the article an overall repositioning of how we deal with crime should be considered. Yes decriminalize marijuana, but we need to look at the whole lock up and through away the key in other cases. Why is that person stealing things? Putting more money towards treatment for the people that are losing their battle with drugs and alcohol is a far better use of resources than to just put them in jail and see how it goes when they leave. Most people are okay with a drink or a smoke but some are incapable of doing these things well. These people need treatment not just jail time.

When you figure in probation, drug rehap etc. And the cost of the courtrooms, judges, baliffs,Public defenders,court reporters etc...

Case in point: my friend gets busted for growing the legal limit of plants in CA. 16 officers make the bust.
he spends the night in jail.

Goes to court four times Public defender. He is on probation from a prevoius bust,(4th time) a circle of jail and probation that started back in 1975 when he was busted with my weed (long story)wich amounted to less than one joint. So this guy has been pn probation for over thirty years. Job security. For less than a joint.

Finally, after all that, they drop the charges.

I figure just the labor alone cost well over 10 thousand dollars.

Now times that by 500,000.

5,000,000,000

And this was a case that was dropped. Imagine the cost had he been prosecuted. And had he he would have had his kids placed in CPS, lost his home etc.....

It's not the entire human race, but a few idiots who made this mess. But how so many millions of people would just stand by and watch is what really is distrubing. Not to mention that shows like COPS made it past the first show without being pulled.

But 30 years?! What is wrong with people? I lived through this god damned mess. I thought it would have caused a revolution. Not so much as a whimper was heard. We grew and feared like fugitives in our own country. What great way to celebrate freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

All I can say is I'm disgusted by most of the people in this country. This is no different than telling gays they can't get married. Taking away from someone something that is none of your business.

Well I don't grow any more. But I still care about all of you stupid people, whoever you are. Grow up.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.:thumbsup: