FROM THE DEPT OF GRIM STATISTICS
This just in from the Marijuana Policy Project:
According to the just-released Uniform Crime Reports, U.S. law enforcement made 847,863 arrests on marijuana charges [in 2008], 89 percent of which were for possession, not sale or manufacture--more arrests for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined.
An American was arrested on marijuana charges every 37 seconds.
What an excellent use of tax dollars. Thank heavens America's coffers are rich with them.
While we're on the subject of wasteful law enforcement and America's war on drugs, let's dredge up some of the junk from this great Lexington column about America's prison system--its brutality and ineffectiveness, as well as its Leviathan-like size--published in The Economist earlier this year:
America has less than 5% of the world’s people but almost 25% of its prisoners. It imprisons 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average. About one in every 31 adults is either in prison or on parole. Black men have a one-in-three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives...
The number of people serving time for drugs has increased from 41,000 in 1980 to 500,000 today, or 55% of the population of federal prisons and 21% of those in state prisons. An astonishing three-quarters of prisoners locked up on drug-related charges are black.
Instead of having marijuana (and its silly regulation) be a drain on government resources, why not just follow Oakland, California, and tax the stuff?
~ EMILY BOBROW
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Nutty Professor?
November 3, 2009 - 11:35 — Visitor (not verified)The Home Secretary in the UK has just sacked his chief drugs advisor. The London Times reports that he questioned the decision to downgrade Canabis as well as stating the alcohol and tobacco were more dangerous than ecstacy and LSD. Still, can't let the facts get in the way of a politician's judgement.
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