March 15, 2012
-
The Real Cost of the War on Drugs
Forty years ago, our government declared a war on drugs. In June of 1971, Nixon declared drug abuse as public enemy number 1. In 1973, the DEA was born. In 1976, Carter campaigned on decriminalizing marijuana. That didn’t work out very well.
*Thirty to forty percent of incarcerated Americans are incarcerated for drug related crimes.
*America has the highest rate of incarcerating their citizens in the world. 743 of 100,000 citizens are currently in prison.
* 1 in 28 children have an incarcerated parent.
*America houses more inmates than the top 35 European countries combined.
*America has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.
*12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses.
*Decriminalizing illicit drugs, along with enacting modest reforms in sentencing and parole, would save taxpayers an estimated $20 billion per year and reduce the prison population from 1.5 million to below 700,000.
*Those who have spent time in prison earn 40 percent less annually after release.
If we legalized only marijuana (I personally think we should legalize them all, but that is for another blog), we could tax and regulate sales which would be an enormous revenue creator. Remember prohibition and the costs associated there? It didn’t take us long to pull our heads out of our asses then, why is this taking so long? Because we signed treaties internationally supporting the war on drugs. The first such treaty celebrated its 100 year birthday this year:
“January 23, 2012 marks the 100th birthday of the first international drug control treaty, the International Opium Convention, signed at the Hague in 1912
The treaty called on signatories to prohibit the non-medical sales of opium, morphine, cocaine and to strictly regulate their distribution and production. The Hague convention would lay the foundation for an edifice of further treaties committing the United States and rest of the world to a century of prohibition, drug wars, and concomitant crime and violence.”
The city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is viewed as an overly-progressive, lazy, sin-drenched city by the opposition, however nothing could be further from the truth. The standard of living is very high, legitimate business including coffee shops where marijuana is sold and consumed account for a strong economy, and the crime and murder rate is one of the lowest in the world. In short, marijuana has been legal and regulated there for many years and the walls have not burned down.
Everybody knows about the health benefits surrounding marijuana, and many states are finally bending and allowing medical marijuana use. Hemp is one of the most miraculous and versatile weeds in the world and its uses are limitless, yet the growth is still a punishable crime.
It astonishes me the lack of common sense governments have when it comes to social and economic matters. It makes me crazy that even when evidence and public interest points blatantly in the direction of easy, obvious solutions that they still choose to ignore it.
The more I read about the birth of America, the more I see how far we have strayed.
““God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.”~Thomas Jefferson
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.”
~Benjamin Franklin
PS – This is ONLY how it is here, I have so much to say about the global effects of this, but will save that for another post.
Comments (63)
If we could stop masturbating ourselves with the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, we’d be a long way toward fixing our national debt, but only if we stopped paying for peoples’ disastrous choices at the same time.
You are making a strong case and I agree. Did you see this? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/08/pat-robertson-pot-should-be-treated-like-alcohol/
As usual I think the discussion of this topic in US is very naive, drug against war is not about stopping drug to enter the country but just a way to make it a lot more expensive and a make bigger proffits. Our countries are talking about legalization but you see we don’t have a drug abuse problem so we can afford legalization cuz at the end your youth consuming it , it’s not our problem…I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon, to much of a big business to let it go that easy, drugs as war and oil are important to US enterpraises as an income so they wont allow modifications to it, not in your country, not in ours of course.
I wonder how it’d impact the consume of it in your country (cuz you’re the biggest consumers in the World) the legalization of drugs? cuz you’re right legalize one is not a big difference after all, Portugal model seems to be the most effective to reduce violence and crime (drug related).
@blonde_apocalypse - I do think we need to pick our battles!
YES, good work. We talked earlier about The Caging of America, but I dropped the ball.
The number incarcerated in the USA, six million, is the largest proportion of any civilized country in the world. IT HAS TRIPLED IN THIRTY YEARS. In 1980, 220 were incarcerated per 100,000, and in 2010 it was 731 per 100,000.
Why? Pot is part of the problem, but there’s more. Corrections has become a for-profit industry, and its magnates, notably Corrections Corporation of America, spend millions lobbying to keep the prisons full. Millions are now locked up for non-violent drug crimes, which may be a kind of fetish among conservatives.
There is a kind of impetus in protecting a skewed wealth-inequality society that requires incarceration. There is at least a known correlation between incarceration and inequality.
@vexations - WOW! If he gets it, there is hope for us yet! Thank you for that!
@xXxlovelylollipop - Yes, the impacts in the US are much different than in other countries. We can read about it and hear about it, but until we live it we will never fully understand it.
I agree this is MUCH different here than other places, but the subject was just too big to talk about it all in one post. I am curious about your opinion when I post the next one.
This is where the “Libertarian” in me comes out because I do believe that all drugs should be legalised. If an individual does not have the wherewithal to abstain or refrain or moderate his/her use, then it is the individual’s choice, not the govts. I suppose it boils down to freedom. I believe when the Founders referred to the Creator, they were also inferring Natural Rights and Natural Laws.
I enjoyed this post. Wonder what the Progressives like karmasutradude and agno think?
@we_deny_everything - You didn’t drop the ball, we moved on to other things! That was a great article, and inequality is very visible in our justice system.
“ Pot is part of the problem, but there’s more. Corrections has become a for-profit industry, and its magnates, notably Corrections Corporation of America, spend millions lobbying to keep the prisons full. Millions are now locked up for non-violent drug crimes, which may be a kind of fetish among conservatives.” – I love how you put that!
@Kellsbella - Thanks! Me too, I think we should legalize and capitalize on all of them, personally. I don’t know, but the Sutra Dude will probably chime in later!
This is an excellent post!
@atticusfin - Thank you!
“It astonishes me the lack of common sense governments have when it comes to social and economic matters. “
well, that’s because you are thinking about the social and economic state of the country…
if you are in position of power, and you are thinking about your own social and economic state (and the hell with other people, especially those less privilaged), it might make more sense…
well, that’s what some people say, at least..
@maniacsicko - I think if a leader really wants to be adored by the public, it would serve them well to please the people. Even King Henry the VIII understood that much. But you are right, power corrupts and clouds judgement.
Yeah I can get behind this.
makes sense. but we like to fight wars we aren’t winning because backing out would imply that we shouldn’t have been in them in the first place.
pat robertson. stunned by that.
power. gah.
Cannabis grows so eagerly that it is unlikely to generate the revenue that the pro-legalization lobby projects. But that’s as it should be, I think — not all that is good is profitable, not all that is profitable is good, and to hell with the capitalist credo anyway. Howzabout we legalize cannabis because it’s the right thing to do, and just be happy with the knowledge that the billions of dollars spent every year to prosecute and maintain cannabis criminals can instead be used for…
Oh shit. The money we save will be used to conduct resource wars. The resource wars will be conducted anyway, so we might just as well stop the killing and immoral imprisonment that we can by legalizing cannabis.
Greetings from the Western Slope, anyway.
Mexico with its losing battle over drugs is seriously thinking about legalizing it. It pure talk though, I doubt if anything will be done about it. But, I wonder, if they do legalize these drugs. I’m sure they would come up with another drug that doesn’t fit in the so called “legal” box of drugs and then string that one on the addicts to get them hooked and we would have another drug war on our hands again.
well said!!
It astonishes me the lack of common sense governments have when it comes to social and economic matters. It makes me crazy that even when evidence and public interest points blatantly in the direction of easy, obvious solutions that they still choose to ignore it
haha, YEAH, right? LOGIC. careful now, you’re starting to sound awfully excitable & opinionated for a girl! -
Maybe Obama will have a chance to get to this in his second term, you know, in his free time, oh wait, I forgot, he can’t even make a decision to tie his shoes that the tea partier majority won’t fillibuster the ever loving crap out of. Oh yeah, brilliant idea, we all vote their tea partier asses right back home, so the president can actually do some executive work with some legislative corporation and GOD FORBID ‘compromise’.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this. In fact, I’m fairly certain this the first mini I’ve ever given out, haha!
I agree with you. So does Ron Paul. I wish he would win. (Wish in one hand……)
I think it is ridiculous that pot is not legal especially when you consider it just became illegal in 1937. to put that in perspective, it was legal in John McCain’s lifetime. Yeah, I’m thinking all drugs SHOULD be legal but probably never will be and we will not win that fight. But marijuana? yeah, that is a very winnable fight, shit even Pat Robertson is saying we should legalize it.
@dirtbubble - Glad to have you on our side!
@promisesunshine - Pat Robertson, I know, right?
@HappierHeathen - Well hello Western Slope!! Where are you? I will have to cruise by your page!
@catstemplar2 - Mexico was on my mind when I wrote this, it’s ugly down there. I am afraid if they don’t just legalize it and remove the power from their cartel that it will get so much uglier. Maybe if the governments get a taste of the money they could both save and earn from the tax revenues they will be less inclined to move into another war on drugs and will instead seek ways to regulate and tax it. That would be a win for everyone.
@amateurprose - Thank you sir!
@DivaJyoti - Logic? Well I don’t know about that, but I DO love kittens!
@wretched_epiphany - THANK YOU!! So honored to be your first mini recipient!
@mtngirlsouth - I like Ron Paul. I think he makes the most sense of any of the R candidates.
@mtngirlsouth - I also think he would be a fair president. But then it is early, who knows how things will shake out!
@heckels - Exactly! We may have hopes too high of legalizing drugs altogether, but at least pot! When was the last time you heard of a man smoking weed that went on a violent, murderous, raging spree? It’s funny, meth didn’t become illegal until 1979 (I think that’s right). It was a legal diet pill and also served as alert medications for the soldiers in WWII. It’s funny how something that is ok today will be outlawed tomorrow.
i believe as a first step marijuana and hashish should not be included in the same group as physically addictive drugs such as heroin, cocaine and addictive barbiturates. that should be a no-brainer. 60 or more years ago the public was led to believe marijuana is addictive. it might be psychologically addictive for some but what isn’t? there were people who *had* to be home for The Gong Show. they probably went through withdrawal when it was taken off the air.
there is another *myth* that marijuana use leads to using harder drugs. i put myth between asterisks because there is some truth to it but the reason, i believe, is dealers who supply marijuana often supply heroin and cocaine, making it easier for a young person (and often an adult) to be talked into trying something different for the right price. some dealers offer a free “taste” because they’ve experienced it being good for business in the long run. separating heroin and coke dealers from marijuana would eliminate at least that kind of department store dealer.
the reason i don’t think heroin, cocaine and other highly addictive drugs should be legalized is i’ve seen the addicted around me as i grew up. some died of overdoses. one later took over his dad’s business and i later learned he ran it into bankruptcy due to his expensive cocaine habit. teenagers especially deal with a lot psychologically. the human brain is not fully developed until about the age of 25. it happens that because of bouts with depression or peer pressure among other reasons a kid will use anything available to escape or get high. there is the argument that legalizing and regulating these drugs with age restrictions will make them unavailable to teens but how many of us were unable to get our hands on beer and cigarettes when we were underage? my friends and i never had a problem. hard drugs are another beast and require a different consideration than does marijuana.
good post btw.
It makes such perfect sense, they’ll never do it.
Yeah, I’m all for legalizing pot as well as other drugs even though I have no intention of ever using them. I believe in our freedoms and rights to consume whatever we wish. Drugs need to go the way of alcohol. The War on Drugs only builds strong drug cartels, like those in Mexico. If there is anything we should have learned from the Prohibition, it should have been that.
@BoulderChristina - if only clinton had inhaled.
This is one of the reasons I’m a Ron Paul supporter. Great post!
@BoulderChristina - @we_deny_everything - In Kentucky, about 45 mins from my old house, there is a town called Beattyville. It is in the second poorest county in the entire nation. The main **industry** of this town is three prisons. Half of the prisoners are imported, half are **home-grown** meaning it is taken for granted that of any graduating class in the town, half will grow up to be the guards, and the other half will grow up to be the inmates. Now tell me that ain’t fucked up. I think we_deny_everything is right–it’s all about the money; I also love the way you put that. Especially when you consider that people who are in prison for pot will NOT take this chance to do *some real hard thinking* about what they will do with their lives, but rather will pick up other lyttle skills and personality traits, like buglarly, gang connections, and pinning soapy twinks against the shower-room wall. If you look at rescividism stats, with each incarceration it becomes more and more likely the person will be a criminal for life. the combination of Drug/Prison culture, ironically, creates more crime than it stops.
Good Blog! Those of my generation have long fought the battle for legalizing pot! Having worked in many fields of medicine I have never once taken care of a stoned on pot crash victim or violent offender stoned on grass! Crack, heroin, Meth all need to remain and classified deadly and addictive drugs and if legalized should be governed and watched closely!
There really is no perfect system for the governing of drugs but in a country that allows cigarettes and alcohol it seems more than redundant to make marijuana illegal esp when medically proven to aid in pain relief and an anti nausea medication for those on chemo-therapy! Taxation would be a boon to our national debt as well as emptying many a jail cell and not feeding and housing those incarcerated for its use!
I hate drugs. I blame drugs on being molested. Even though it happened on my dad’s watch, I don’t blame him. He’s human, and he succumbed to heroin, like so many people.
While many people believe that weed should be legalized, I see a huge problem with that. Not so much that I’m against it, but the fact that it would be so difficult to regulate. There are so many different things that are added to it. I’ve heard many people say that weed these days is way more potent than it used to be.
Besides, that, the hardcore drugs literally destroy your body and your brain. Take cocaine. Your body produces endorphins on its own. They are the body’s own feel good drug that are actually produced in your brain. Once you get addicted to cocaine and the more you use, your brain actually stops producing its own endorphins, making your low when you crash way worse. You get very, very depressed until you get your next high. Then you start getting high all the time so you don’t feel that way. Then it becomes very easy to overdose. Drugs are dangerous.
I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why the government should tell me what I can and cannot put into my own body. Great post.
The only thing I disagree about is the taxation. I think that “sin taxes” like for cigarettes, alcohol, strip clubs, etc, are another way to legislate morality, which I think is fundamentally wrong.
@TheSutraDude - Thank you so much for this! I agree, first things first is to separate marijuana from the rest. I have no hopes of other things becoming legal, but I still think they should be. The worst effects of these drugs are from the cutting them with other harmful things. BUT – I have not done as much research on everything else, so I can’t speak with as much certainty, but I do know that the most dangerous, horrible drug on the market today is meth. That was legal until the late 70s. They sold it to dieting women and late night truck drivers, and wasn’t even close to as awful as it is today. I am not going to try to argue for everything else being legal because, as I said, I am not as familiar with the other drugs and I believe it’s pointless anyway. But we have a real chance with marijuana.
@roscoes_farm - The easy things are just too, well, easy!
@firetyger - I agree!
@promisesunshine - If only!
@justfinethanku - Thanks!
@autumn_cannibal76 - That is so sad! “If you look at rescividism stats, with each incarceration it becomes more and more likely the person will be a criminal for life. the combination of Drug/Prison culture, ironically, creates more crime than it stops.” – Great point!
@GrimRpr000 - I agree with every one of your points! My daughter was on chemo and took liquid thc drops for nausea, the only thing in the world that helped!
@crazy2love - Given your history I don’t blame you for hating drugs.
@WaitingToShrug - I agree with you about the sin tax, but I can see it as a great incentive tool to legalize it.
but I thought I read somewhere that Amsterdam recently had passage of laws prohibiting marijuana. I can’t remember it now. but yeah, when Pat Robertson is speaking out that marijuana should be legalized it’s time to end the war on that plant.
@godfatherofgreenbay - I hadn’t heard that??? But agreed, time to let the plant grow!
When it come to marijuana I am basically libertarian. I don’t want it taxed or banned. Though laws against commercialization (other than industrial hemp) make sense (Grow your own it so damn easy) . Addictive drugs are another story and I do not favor legalization of them in anyway
@trunthepaige - They are another story, and I see why most people don’t want them legal. They probably never will be! I think though, if we regulated, taxed and monitored them it would take the power away from the violent cartels and dealers and make the drugs less harmful. Everyone knows cigarettes will kill you, but some smoke anyway. Most of these drugs were legal and semi safe at one point, they gained their power and deadliness from the way they are changed and cut. Again, that isn’t an area I know as much about, but I am a dreamer!
@BoulderChristina - But meth is far worse than cigarettes. But treatment would make far more sense than jail time.
I’m just not that up on the regulate and tax part. Other than that, fine.
@BoulderChristina - you’re welcome. i forgot about crystal meth. something i didn’t mention was i don’t know what the economic breakdown is for a drug dealer who sells marijuana and hard drugs but i wonder if taking marijuana away would make dealing no longer worth the trouble. in other words i wonder if it would be like not allowing a gas station to sell gas. will it be worth it for the station to remain open to sell packs of gum or whatever else it sells on the side.
Legalize Pot. When was the last time you had to break up a fight when some was high on pot? Now how many bar fights does one have to break up? Hell, Hemp is a renewable resource and because of it’s connection to Pot, people are missing out. Just saying…
@Zoz36 - Agreed
i forgot to mention. i don’t agree with Benjamin Franklin’s statement there. in and of itself it is vague. one man or woman’s essential liberty is another’s essential prison. i also do not agree with Thomas Jefferson’s tree of liberty because it is usually the very ignorant who call upon it as an expedient means of getting their self interested wants. in countries where that does actually happen civilization never takes root. imagine the “there they go again” face plants of the rest of the world were we to have a civil war every 20 years.
i believe in their time the founding fathers of the U.S. had tremendous wisdom for creating a Constitution that can continue to live, breath and mature but we and future generations need to cultivate ever greater wisdom as we have done at great pains thus far.
I read an article in our local paper about the Feds moving on a legal medical marijuana dispensary. They confiscated not just the “controlled substance”, but the cash as well. Proprietor and patients alike, were cuffed and treated like criminals. The article said that a nearby ATM was also confiscated. Presumably it was guilty of providing cash to pot buyers?
As long as law enforcement agencies can take advantage of, and abuse, the confiscation laws, deregulation will NEVER happen; there is simply too much money in it.
Yes it is very ridiculous that marijuana in not legal in every state. While marijuana effective for treat many diseases.
marijuana in Graham