Senator Jim Webb wrote a piece for ParadeMagazine:
With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.
…
Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses…. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans–who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population–accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
Read the whole article here.
This is a great development. I heard Webb on NPR yesterday and saw his piece in Parade, which is not exactly known as a radical rag. This is great! Really made me smile over the weekend. We have a long way to go, but the information people need to wake up and insist on change is getting out more often these days.
We should legalize the drugs, release all nonviolent drug offenders and execute violent criminals. We’d only have like three prisons left.
I am not in favor of drugs, never did any myself but grew up around many friends who were marijuana smokers. They all did pretty well in life. I am in favor of legalizing drugs, marijuana,maybe regulating the others, taxing them like alcohol and other things are. Too much taxpayer’s money is wasted, too many ‘normal’ people sent to jail for minor offenses when they are no danger to the society. The war on drugs has failed, every body admits it. Legalize them, tax them, treat drugs the same way alcohol is treated.