The release of Yanira Maldonado from a Mexican jail after an apparent attempt to frame her for marijuana trafficking underlines the need to end the disastrous “war on drugs” and to legalize marijuana. Maldonado only escaped a very unpleasant fate because she happened to be exonerated by a surveillance video showing her boarding a bus visibly lacking in 6 kilos of pot.
Over 600,000 Americans are arrested every year on marijuana offenses, and those arrests, jailings and court sentences cost more than $10 billion every year. Roughly 50,000 people are in jail for marijuana offenses, costing another $1 billion a year. More Americans are now arrested for marijuana than for all violent crimes combined. Wouldn’t we have less crime if police were freed to go after, like, actual criminals?
All this is not to mention the ways in which the system produces injustice and corruption. Ms. Maldonado wouldn’t be the first person falsely accused by someone hoping to get a bribe or to pass blame to someone else.
What percent of people arrested for possession of Marijuana or intent to sell Marijuana actually spend time in prison? If we are arresting 600,000 people a year for possesion but of marijuna but only 50,000 people are in prison for such a crime what happens to the others? I also wonder if there is a racial bias in the enforcement of these laws.
Most appear to be sentenced to community service or the like, but it is a very expensive way to get volunteers!
Of course there is a racial bias! The prohibition on pot was all about race!
link to reason.com
Does “prison” include “jail?” Let’s not candy-coat the numbers:
– See more at: link to drugwarfacts.org See lots more at that link. And 700,000+ does not count those in jail awaiting hearings, busted by bastard cops, or otherwise “not convicted yet.” Today’s set from my local area can be found here: link to tampabay.com Just one 24-hour period, and a mesmerizing set of fellow humans who have done other stuff too. Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein are not in the mix…
Of course, for the udder side, see David “I am not an a__hole” Frum: link to thedailybeast.com
Does that satisfy the Fake Fairness Doctrine metric?
We have buried J. Eyewash Hoover, but he rules us from his grave…
If it had not been marijuana it would have been some other illegal thing (cocaine, explosives). Although I am in favor of it, I’m not sure this case by itself proves the need for decriminalization. It’s a bit of a logical leap.
From your mouth to gods ear. But there are many who remain deeply intrenched and comforted in their personal phobias and profits. They would ever allow us to save ourselves from the gross waste of resources on yet another failed “war”.
I hope those who set her up get tough justice. What a horrid thing to do to a person.
Better yet, stop self medicating on pot and get to your real problem. Society does not need pot heads driving cars and trucks, or operating dangerous machines.
Hanging the self-medication label on pot is a misleading drug war ad phrase, the kind of label that like propaganda is accurate in a limited sense but broadly inaccurate outside the narrow use of the labeler, the kind of label that disrupts rational thought and needs to be junked. Without exception, every American adult, every human adult, self-medicates, be it on prescription drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol, gambling, tv, you tube videos, electronic games, endorphins, adrenaline, blogs, politics, news, texting, and an endless list of all events, foods, emotional situations that produce psychological effects that could or definitely will limit the person’s ability to make the best decision in the myriad complex and dangerous physical and relational situations that a technological society places us all in. Men who seek a more advanced hard on pop a pill even thought the list of side effects is long and frightening if rationally considered. Parents who think two, four or fifteen children are enough self medicate to limit the number of new humans they produce.
We all rely on self medication. Drug companies and doctors rely on self medication. The government could not function without citizen self medication. You self medicate every time you take a drink of water or breathe dirty air. But self medication is a term that properly should be replaced with ‘responsibility’. It is personally and socially irresponsible to engage in ordinary life in an ordinary way after ingesting some foods, poisons, drugs, emotional encounters, and/or information, with the “and” of and/or being increasingly important when synergistic potentials are recognized.
Personal security is best enhanced by neighbors you trust, and who trust you. If my horse is stuck in a bog and my neighbor has a big tractor or the right information to get my horse out, I need to trust that neighbor to simply tell me “I’d help you but I just finished a quart of whiskey” or, “I just took some meds and I can’t operate machinery worth a hoot, or do any heavy lifting.” “Self medication” drives a wedge between people. What’s he on? Drunk again? Whatever you do don’t get angry. I better not mention his ex wife. So they finally fired you, eh?
If you think self medication is bad, I suggest you go complain to the US military which offers, suggests, or mandates the use of psychoactive drugs all the time. If you just spent five years in an arduous quest to be a top navy fighter pilot and you find yourself airborne at night and have a problem four hundred miles from your carrier, you may well pop an upper soon enough that it can give you a little insurance for your landing, so that landing doesn’t end up being your last one as a top gun, not mention an extant human. Which means you may well follow it with a downer to get some sleep once on board. If you are on watch at an isolated Afghan FOB it’s no secret that military uppers and downers are there to help you, day after night after day. And you better complain about the mandatory drugs like larium that are known to produce or encourage violent or ‘touchy’ behavior in an identifiable percentage of humans who are present are armed to the teeth in a country they don’t understand with a language they don’t comprehend. Don’t trust me. Go talk to the larium vets and families. The US military has no moral superiority to Judy Garland’s handlers.
We all rely and hope that rational decisions be made in any situation that could cause harm. That outcome necessitates accurate knowledge, self awareness and personal honesty, not a fuzzy default to an ad slogan.
420 Forever My Friends