Overpopulation of Prisons, War on Drugs, Potential Solution

I'm going to hit you with some facts (all of which are from this source: American Civil Liberties Union)

The prison population in America exceeds 2 MILLION, this is the highest in the world.

The U.S. now has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the world, rivaling that of Russia. Our incarceration rate is more than four times that of Canada, five times that of Britain, and 14 times that of Japan.

Two-thirds of these prisoners are serving time for non-violent crimes.

1 in 4 black men, ages 20 to 29, are in prison. A shocking 1 in 3 are on parole/probation/prison.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), 13% of all monthly drug users in America are black. (That's about the same as the percentage of the population that's black.) But 35% of those arrested for drug possession are black; 58% of those convicted of drug possession are black; and 74% of those imprisoned for drug possession are black.

There is a hundred-fold disparity between sentences for conviction of possession of equivalent amounts of crack cocaine (a drug used primarily by blacks and Latinos) and powder cocaine (a drug used primarily by whites), despite the fact that there is no pharmacological difference in the effects of the drugs on the body. Crack prosecution is 96% black or Latino. The prosecution of high-level dealers amounts to less than 5% of this.

THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT
Federal, State, and local governments spent $24 billion last year on the incarceration of non-violent criminals (many of them drug offenders) alone. This is 50% more that the entire federal welfare budget, and almost six times the amount the federal government spends annually on child care.

Administrations of Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, shows that on a nationwide average, imprisoning an addict costs $25,900 per year, while treatment costs only $4400-6800 per year.



Now you know what you're dealing with. A country that cares more about throwing a "scary, dangerous, high black man" in jail than arresting someone involved in a violent crime.
Enough with the lies, taxpayers money is being wasted on people that need help, not people that deserve to be thrown in prison. It's easy to see that the majority of the overpopulation problem is due to the war on drugs. It is also easy to see that this "war on drugs" is also more of a race war than anything else. So much for every man being created equal.

Disclaimer: I am not some pro-pot stoner, I will be using facts, and my solution is a widely held opinion.

One potential solution: Decriminalize the use of marijuana.

A brief story about why marijuana is illegal in the first place. Some big businesses including duPont Chemicals were suffering losses because of hemp (not marijuana). Some government officials were investors in duPont. These government officials lied about hemp, made up scare campaigns and made marijuana, and hemp, illegal. You can look all that up if you want a more detailed explanation.

Some myths, and facts to prove them wrong:


Marijuana causes brain damage.
Wrong: in many studies done both on humans and monkeys, no amount of marijuana has ever been linked to brain damage.

Marijuana is a gateway drug.
Wrong again. While many people that try "hard" drugs (cocaine, heroin etc.) may have started by smoking marijuana, this does not mean that smoking marijuana led to the harder drugs. In fact, many people that smoke marijuana are turned off by harder drugs.

Marijuana is more dangerous than tobacco.
Wrong. Marijuana has about the same amount of carcinogens as tobacco. A cigarette smoker may smoke a pack a day, if not more. A person smoking marijuana will not be inhaling nearly as much smoke as a cigarette smoker.

Decriminalizing marijuana would lead to a drastic increase in users.
False. There is no evidence to prove that decriminalizing would lead to an increase in users. In fact, states that have decriminalized have seen almost no change in the amount of people that admit to smoking.

(sources: NORML Marijuana Myths)

Unfortunately, people believe the lies that the government continues to spew across the media. It is just like the prohibition of alcohol though. There is and will continue to be a black market for drugs, just like there was for alcohol. The biggest problem facing the government taking steps towards decriminalization is the fact that taxing marijuana would be very difficult. Unlike alcohol or cigarettes, it's not very hard to grow your own weed, so taxation is more difficult to control. If the government is not making money on it, why would they have any interest in decriminalizing it?

Let me say it again, I'm not some stoner who thinks that everybody should smoke weed and "see the light". I do think however, that decriminalizing marijuana would save tax payers billions of dollars every year and harmless people would stop going to jail.

Please comment back and give me your opinion. It doesn't really matter if you smoke or not, just tell me if I've made sense. And give me some feedback about other ways to stop the overpopulation.