Posted on 02/03/2012 4:11:23 PM PST by jpsb
Since President Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971 the United States has jailed tens of million of its' citizens. In 2008 alone 1.5 million American were arrested and 500,000 were imprisoned. At a cost of $45,000 per prisoner per year over 22 billion dollars were spent in prison costs alone for just those busted in 2008. I would imagine the costs to the courts, parole officers and police departments are equally large. And then there is the unmeasurable societal cost of a lost income to a community and the breakup of families effected should it be a mom or a dad imprisoned. These are grim figures and even grimmer when one realizes that well over half of all drug busts are marijuana related. That's right pot smokers and pot dealers. We are spending 40 billion plus a years to throw pot heads in jail.
While the direct costs to us are huge there is still the question of indirect costs. Most of the pot heads avoid arrest and most of the money they spend on pot goes to the Mexican Drug Cartels. One needs only look to Mexico to see what that money and the corruption it brings has done to Mexico. Legalizing marijuana would go a long ways towards denying the drug cartels their life blood of US dollars. I feel certain American farmers would be more then happy to meet domestic cannabis demand and do so within the law.
There is also an argument to be made that our federal drug laws are in fact unconstitutional. A the turn of the 19th century there were no federal drug laws. When Congress foolishly prohibited alcohol in 1913 it felt compelled to amend the Constitution to do so, believing correctly in my view, that the federal government lacked the authority to prohibit any American from consuming any substance. Similarly a Constitutional amendment should be necessary to enable the federal government to prohibit the use of recreational drugs. Since there is no such amendment federal drug laws are unconstitutional. Prohibition of drugs is a state issue, not a federal issue. If states like California wish to allow the use of marijuana the federal government is not authorize by our Constitution to prevent it. And should cities and towns in a marijuana friendly California wish to enact local laws prohibiting marijuana they a free to do so.
I can certainly understand the moral and health arguments against highly addictive hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. But I am unimpressed when those same arguments are used against marijuana legalization. While I do not smoke pot I know a great many people that do, regularly. They all go to work, pay their bills and raise their children just like everyone else. The only bad thing I have noticed is they tend to eat more junk food then the rest of us. They love potato chips and twinkles. Yuck.
All things considered I think it is time to declare a war on the war on drugs. The war costs us billions where we could be making billions instead. It is empowering a corrupt and violent anti American culture right on our border . The federal government has no authority to wage this war and the tools it uses property seizures, no knock raids and such endanger our individual liberty and property. Marijuana users are not drug crazed criminals looking to rob and mane. They just hungry munchkins out to get a bag of chips.
I agree, the issue has been simmering with me for a long time, but this election has placed it on the table so I am throwing my 2 cents in, lol
Affected.
We as a population haven’t learned a DAMN THING from the most recent prohibition of nearly 100 years ago. Every time a prohibition against anything where there is a demand, it will FAIL, and the prohibition itself is more harmful to society than what all the nanny state ‘doo-gooders’ are looking to prohibit.
The bottom line is YOU CAN’T CHANGE BEHAVIOR. If someone wants to use drugs, they’ll do it. The more you try to use the force(farce) of the government/law to change that behavior, the more harm will be done.
oops, thanks I will correct on my web site
with that said I for one am in favor of the legalization of weed. The war on drugs has been as successful as the war on poverty.
“Marijuana users are not drug crazed criminals looking to rob and mane. They just hungry munchkins out to get a bag of chips”.
But the people who supply the dope are and their products are blood stained.
Throw them all in jail - otherwise taxpayers will be forced to pay their medical costs.
Jail is cheaper.
Eliminate laws on murder and save money. Eliminate all traffic laws and drive free! Right
That made no sense. When did I say anything about eliminating laws on murder? I simply said that the drug traffickers would no longer traffic in marijuana if it were legalized.
Thereby stopping the crime associated with it.
Everyone in jail has all their medical costs paid for too. Including dental. And they can get whatever drugs they want.
If some guy robs a store and shoots the clerk to death, would you sue Smith & Wesson? Do we blame the shooter, or the corp?
If a drug user dies or kills someone, do we blame the drug user, or do we blame the bureaucrat who enforces the law?
I'm not necessarily opposed to changing the law, but I also think people should be accountable for their own actions. People in the drug trade do damage lives and they are not blameless -- trying to say the prohibitionists have blood on their hands is really misrepresenting reality.
Jail is expensive, let’s just kill them that would be a lot cheaper. And since we are trying to save money on medical care we could get rid of old folks too at the same time, and anyone that has a serious medical condition. Also the not too bright need a serious looking at. /s
You might want to think about that again.
It’s always other peoples fault. An uncorked and sour whine.
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