RE: AP: US drug war has met none of its goals

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RE: AP: US drug war has met none of its goals - 5/19/2010 9:37:47 AM

cloudboy

Posts: 7306
Joined: 12/14/2005
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I am a lawyer, and sometimes I defend DWIs or minor drug offenses in court. I also live in BALTO CITY, home of THE WIRE.

In my last district court case, it just struck me how the system is ramming the lowest of America's low (poor, using drugs, in poor health, not particularly violent) through the justice system for drug possession offenses. It struck me as a waste of police and judicial resources, and as a pointless hassle to damaging criminal prosecution for the low level offenders.

So, these stats were the ones from your article that jumped out at me:

- $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.

- $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.

(in reply to Dubbelganger)