The New York Times December 7, 1993-
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7— The nation’s Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders, today recommended that the Government study the idea of legalizing drugs, suggesting that doing so might reduce violent crimes. But she stopped short of endorsing such a radical reversal of the nation’s drug policy.
She was vilified by Republicans.
About the same time I remember watching Frontline on PBS concerning this subject. There was an interview with the then Detroit Chief of Police who said that 40% of his budget goes to drug enforcement. He added the thought of what improvements he could make in the department with equipment and community services if the 40% could be invested in those areas.
Recently, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is moving to rescind Obama-era guidance that has generally allowed states to implement their own marijuana laws without federal interference.
Federal law still treats marijuana as a controlled substance, just like cocaine or heroin, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, California legalized recreational use of marijuana.
And there’s the rub.
There are currently over 2,200,000 inmates in state and federal prisons.
2,200,000 – say it out loud – two million two hundred thousand
A study done by Time, Inc. published on December 9, 2016 reports that,
“39% of Prisoners Should Not Be in Prison”
“We (Time) found that approximately 39% of the nationwide prison population (576,000 people) is behind bars with little public safety rationale. And they can be released, significantly and safely cutting our prison population.
How did we get to this number? First, many people who are in prison shouldn’t have been sent there in the first place. For example, we found that 25% of prisoners (364,000 people), almost all non-violent, lower-level offenders, would be better served by alternatives to incarceration such as treatment, community service, or probation. Second, another 14% (212,000 prisoners) have already served long sentences for more serious crimes and can be safely set free.”
Time went on to add that,
“From 1960 to 1980, violent crime soared 270%, peaking at 758 violent offenses per 100,000 people in 1991. African American and Latino communities bore the brunt of this crime rise. By the late 1970s, people of color were crime victims at a rate 24% higher than white Americans.”
The result was:
States and the federal government responded by enacting a series of laws that dramatically lengthened sentences for many crimes, and also created entirely new ones. Increased policing of lower-level offenses and drug violations swept more individuals into the system. Punitive policies such as mandatory minimum sentencing, the abolishment of parole, and a slew of new criminal laws caused the prison population to explode.”
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice issued in October 2015,
African-Americans comprise 38.8% of drug offenders in the Federal Bureau of Prisons as of fiscal year end 2012.
Yet Jeff Sessions wants to get tougher on federal drug enforcement and minimum sentencing which will only lead to MORE INMATES!
Then there’s Portugal.
The drug policy of Portugal was put in place in 2001, and was legally effective from July 2001. The new law maintained the status of illegality for using or possessing any drug for personal use without authorization. However, the offense was changed from a criminal one, with prison a possible punishment, to an administrative one if the amount possessed was no more than a ten-day supply of that substance. -source, Wikipedia
Instead of punishing people without really helping them reconsider their life decisions, Portugal offers drug addicts counseling, needle exchange programs, and access to hospitals. Since starting this approach, Portugal has gone from arresting 14,000 people per year for drug offenses to just around 6,000. It went from having a heroin epidemic to having the lowest drug usage rate in the European Union. Not only are the jails and prisons less full, people are using less dangerous drugs. -source attn.com
Portugal has become a model for other countries considering a paradigm shift in drug policies.
Yet Jeff Sessions wants to get tougher on federal drug enforcement and minimum sentencing which will only lead to MORE INMATES!
And who will pay for all this?
You, the taxpayer.