Our incarceration rate PER CAPITA is the highest in the world and that RATE has increased over 350% since 1972, from 100 people in prison per 100k population to more than 900 people per 100k! Prior to 1972 the rate had remained roughly the same (100 per 100k) for 50 years (since these records were first kept by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1925).
I was born in 1955 and I saw and felt America progress socially until around 1972 and I've seen us regress since. We spend almost 100 Billion dollars a year on incarcerating well over 2 million people. But it's not just the money that burdens us, it's the broken homes and fatherless children and the chaos and violence that reflect these increased rates that have made our society so sad and cynical.
There is just one other time in recorded US history where we have seen such an increase in incarceration and that came at the end of the Prohibition of alcohol. Then we saw a 25% increase in incarceration over just 5 years! Prohibition was ended, not because Scientists and Dr.s decided alcohol didn't cause health and social problems, but because America and our political leaders had realized that the ramifications of Prohibition, the vast illegal industry that rose up to sell alcohol, with its inherent violence and corrupting influence over our justice system was in fact far worse for our society than the problem we set out to fix.
That is the conclusion we must come to today. Our Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration must reflect the facts on the ground. People do die of alcoholism and it does ruin many lives and that is true for illegal drugs today too. But whatever we do to ameliorate the bad effects from the use of alcohol and illegal drugs, we must first learn the lesson of Prohibition and make certain that our efforts do not spawn a gigantic criminal industry that threatens our society far more than the negative aspects of drug and alcohol use.
I hope and pray that president Obama will address this issue, after all, if he had been held accountable to these prohibitory drug laws when he was young, he likely would have never run for president.
from-http://ChipShirley.Com/
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End the war on drugs.
ReplyDeleteHowever, those deciding to use drugs must not become burdens to the taxpayer. If they commit crimes related to drug use they go to jail like any other criminal. If they want or need help it should be charities and private citizens that provide it.
If you involve the government people will more easily turn to drugs believing if they ever need help the government will pay for everything.
Make people responsible for their actions.
Money used to wage the war on drugs should be returned to the taxpayer in the form of a tax decrease.
Agreed. The savings to society, in many forms would be transformative, just as the negative consequences of these policies have tragically been.
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