prohibition

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I am against prohibition.

We tried it with alcohol and all we got for it was organized crime.

That type of organized crime is one of the things that comes from drug prohibition except that this one is international.

But there is a lot more than just that. With the sentences that we give out for drug crimes in America we are ruining the lives of millions of people.

The land of the free has a larger percentage of its population in prison than any other country in the world. That is not compared to the industrialized world. Not the developed world. Not just democracies. Greater than any other country in the whole world!! We have 6% of the world's population and 24% of its prisoners.

Why? Well for one thing about half of all of the people in federal prisons are there for drug related crimes (as in manufacture, sale, possession, or use).

What we are doing now isn't working.

I am not advocating a laissez faire attitude toward drugs. Treat marijuana like liquor and exercise even greater control over hard drugs. But, at least, get rid of the criminal penalties for possession of personal amounts.

In Alberta, Canada all liquor is sold from stores operated by the government. The tax on it is high, so high that the cost of wine for home use is as high as consumption in a bar or restaurant. They pay for their health care with the funds from those sales and taxes.

Maybe it is God's will that our approach to this continues to be that we do the first thing that pops into our head: lock'em up. But He gave us these brains and I don't think that it is likely that He would be offended if we were to use them in dealing with this problem.
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