American taxpayers are now spending more than a billion dollars per year to incarcerate its citizens for pot. That's according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics.
(source:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/47815/)
My two cents: The government has no place prohibiting the use of marijuana or regulating it. There's no reason for it except to generate revenue, on either count. There should be no law against its use, distribution, where it can be grown, or how much you can have. Period.
I'm not sure how much you can believe about these stats (though I've seen similar numbers from multiple sources), but if true... then the prohibition of marijuana is completely out of control and needs to
stop now.
http://skeptically.org/recdrugs/id8.html
YEAR MARIJUANA ARRESTS
2001 723,627
2000 734,498
1999 704,812
1998 682,885
1997 695,200
1996 641,642
1995 588,963
1994 499,122
1993 380,689
1992 342,314
This is insane.