Oh No! He talking about that again!

Shocked aren't you? I have commented on legalizing drugs several times and even once posted my idea on how to go about doing it.  But for the life of me I can’t remember which blog it was in and boy could I go for a bag of Doritos. (followed by rim shot).  Thank you very much here every tuesday night please tip your waitress,,,,, but to the point as to why I am writing about it again.

I just read Fareed Zakaria’s latest Time Magazine column (April 2^nd issue) “Incarceration Nation”.  Fareed is one of my favorite journalist/authors. In his latest piece Fareed presents statistics on how the war on drugs has resulted in the incarceration of millions of Americans.  The current numbers are staggering and even more so when compared to other nations rates and to our recent past.

 As Fareed says; “here are the facts”. The U.S currently has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.  The U.S may have lost its position as number one in the world on many issues but we have a stranglehold on the number of times Jack Lord says“Book ‘em Danno”.

Our numbers are 7 to 10 times higher than the rest of the world.  How you high you say? Well here are the rest of the world’s rates per 100,000 – Japan 63, Germany 90, France 96, South Korea 97 and Britain 153 (And remember the Brits invented the Tower of London for God's sake. If anyone should be locking people up at a higher rate than us it should be the them).  Let’s go back in case you forgot the U.S rate because you're bogarting that joint my friend – The U.S rate is 760.  For Christ sake – Mexico where everyone should be locked up came in at a lightweight 208.  Even Pat Robertson who is secretly praying for Peyton Manning to get his comeuppance as a payback for causing the trade of baby Jesus said "I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they have a small amount of a controlled substance,".  So now even the 700 Club wants to end the 760 Club. 

So 30 years ago before the war on drugs started the U.S. sleep number was a 150 inmates per 100,000 citizens.  Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 to 148 by 1996.  More than half of today’s prison population are there on drug convictions.  You know what part of Fareed's article really troubles me?  As we privatize prison systems we incentivize the perpetuation and growth of that system.  Private prisons are hiring lobbyists and claiming they can create jobs in economically depressed places  They are also creating a cash stream for the government so Uncle Sam can become addicted to that cash flow and will be motivated to maintain current laws to feed its habit.

According to Fareed “Over the past four decades the U.S. has spent more than 1 trillion dollars fighting the war on drugs. The result?  In 2011 a global commission on drug policy issued a report signed by George Shultz, Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan…” “Its main recommendation is to “encourage experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.”  Seriously they don’t come anymore Republican than George. 

As Fareed points out “We are creating a vast prisoner underclass in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society all in the name of a war we have already lost."

“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.“  William F. Buckley Jr.

“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.”
Jimmy Carter, U.S. President

”I say legalize drugs because I want to see less drug abuse, not more. And I say legalize drugs because I want to see the criminals put out of business.”
Edward Ellison, former Head of Scotland Yard’s Antidrug Squad

P.S. CoD here -  I don't use drugs and I am pretty sure George Schultz doesn't either.