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“What happened top the question “Anything to verify its fact not just your imagination”?”

You didn't read - or understand - the very first sentence in my reply:

“I'll put together some exact citations for you over Xmas weekend.”

So, after a long afternoon nap, I Googled the FBI, Department of Justice, and DEA websites.

Tough work, but someone has to do it.

(1) Roughly 100,000 drug offenders are incarcerated in Federal prisons.

95% for drug dealing.

5% (5,000) of them for drug possession.

That 5,000 includes possession for ALL drug types, not just marijuana.

Sources: William J. Sabol, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice, December 2008, page 22, Appendix Table 12 - Christopher Mumola, Department of Justice, October 2006, page 4

(2) I did multiple search titles for info on first time offenders serving time for possession of user amounts of marijuana in federal prisons.

I can find no record that any such prisoners exist.

(3) Roughly 255,000 drug offenders are held in state prisons.

Source: William J. Sabol, “Prisoners in 2007,” Department of Justice, December 2008, page 21, Appendix Table 10

(4) Only 4,000 state prisoners are incarcerated for marijuana possession.

There is no data on the quantity of marijuana they possessed, or if they had previous convictions.

I can find no data that indicates any of those state prisoners are first time offenders who possessed user amounts of marijuana.

Source: DEA, 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook, page 10

(5) According to NORML.org, there were 860,000 marijuana arrests in 2009.

I can find dozens of links on NORML’s website to stories about peaceful, law abiding dealers going to jail.

I cannot find one link on NORML to any story about peaceful, law abiding users going to jail for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Let's do the math.

There were 860,000 arrests for marijuana in 2009.

At most, there were 6,000 federal and state prisoners serving time for marijuana possession.

I stand by my original statement, Dusty....

“The number of recreational (but otherwise law abiding) users in jail is close to zero.”