A recent article on salon goes into Jim Webb’s proposal for reforming our prison system. I do not understand the logic of locking people up for simply possessing marijuana (a drug that is far less harmful than tobacco and alcohol). When we imprison these people we are vastly increasing the cost to the tax payers and actively causing these people physical and psychological harm. Wikipedia states the following.
In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration, and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.[22]
Common sense tells us that forcing people to live under those conditions will only magnify any problems these people might have had to began with. Thus making it more likely that they will return to prison later in life or at the very least become more likely to [re]turn to drugs.
When we look at the number of incarcerated over time it is easy to see the effect of the war on drugs. This graph is even more striking when we realize that other types of crime (violent crime and property crime) have been declining since the early 1990s.[13]
And yet we have nothing to show for it accept a vast bill and millions of lives that have been ruined. According to the Washington Post we spend an estimated 60 billion dollars annually on prisons in America. It only looks worse when we compare ourselves to other countries. China, which has the second highest incarceration rate in the world, has an incarceration rate that when normalized for population is 18% of the U.S.’s rate.
All of these arguments are really just a side note, because the real argument for legalization is that we live in a free country. Being able to decide what is acceptable to put into your own body seems like a very basic freedom to me.
When Mr. Obama was asked about decriminalizing marijuana, he had this to say.
The thing that really gets me (and a lot of other people) is that it is some how crazy that people are asking him this question.
His views seem to have evolved over the years, because in 2004 he had this to say.
Perhaps he feels that he can not politically express his true beliefs. I hope that is not the case because it would mean that he is not the leader I hoped he would be.
Mr. Obama should support Mr. Webb’s brave leadership on this issue.
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