"The war on drugs has failed. Its failure has been so categorical and self-evident that the statement itself is bromidic. By any reasonable metric of success—addiction rates, violence, the availability of drugs in our schools— it’s clear that our 40-year jihad against certain plants and chemicals has done far more harm than good. Despite this, the federal government’s drug war strategy, which is founded upon aggressive law enforcement and mass incarceration, remains unchanged. We continue to arrest nearly a million people a year for marijuana offenses. We remain the world’s leading jailer, with an incarceration rate more than five times the global average. And this year, the federal government will spend nearly $4 billion more on drug law enforcement and interdiction than it will on drug treatment.
What has this strategy gotten us? The highest drug abuse rates on the planet and 50,000 corpses in Mexico."........................
But there doesn't seem to be much desire from the public to change those laws. Even California voted down legalizing marijuana. I would love for Colorado voters to legalize it here.
And it doesn't look like neither Romney nor Obama want to push for legalization.
Wouldn't it be awesome if Obama won, he could host 4/20 parties on the White House grounds. (Waiting for someone to steal a partial of my quote.)
And hand out millions of pardons for MJ offenses.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
There are too many people who benefit financially from keeping it illegal. From government agencies, to law enforcement, to the country of Columbia (which gets millions from us each year), keeping drugs illegal maintains a steady flow of taxpayer dollars.
OmniScience wrote: There are too many people who benefit financially from keeping it illegal. From government agencies, to law enforcement, to the country of Columbia (which gets millions from us each year), keeping drugs illegal maintains a steady flow of taxpayer dollars.
Concure, and I think that could explain a large part of this story.
