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America prides itself for being a leader in many things as a nation but one statistic that we should not be proud of is the fact that the United States, the “land of the free”, imprisons more people than any other country on the planet, including China! The U.S. has over 2.3 million people behind bars while China, with 4 times the population has only 1.6 million. That’s right, with only 5% of the world’s population the U.S. incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners and people are imprisoned for things like writing bad checks and drug use that wouldn’t even get a prison sentence in many countries.
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Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007. Of these, 15,647 were incarcerated for violent offenses, including 2,915 for homicide, 8,966 for robbery, and 3,939 for other violent crimes. In addition, 10,345 inmates were serving time for property crimes, including 504 for burglary, 7,834 for fraud, and 2,006 for other property offenses. A total of 95,446 were incarcerated for drug offenses. Also, 56,237 were incarcerated for public-order offenses, including 19,528 for immigration offenses and 24,435 for weapons offenses.
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Police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States.
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The endpoint in the criminal justice system is corrections, where persons sentenced to supervision are either incarcerated in prison or jail, or in the community on probation or parole. Based on current prison population counts, we estimate that there are 27,900 persons in state and federal prison serving a sentence for which a marijuana violation is the controlling (or most serious) offense.[67] This translates to a national estimated loss of more than $600 million per year.[68]
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Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.
The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Gross but relevant. Link
"Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory animals (rats, mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses of up to 1,000 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram). This would be equivalent to a 70 kg person swallowing 70 grams of the drug -- about 5,000 times more than is required to produce a high. Despite the widespread illicit use of cannabis there are very few if any instances of people dying from an overdose. In Britain, official government statistics listed five deaths from cannabis in the period 1993-1995 but on closer examination these proved to have been deaths due to inhalation of vomit that could not be directly attributed to cannabis (House of Lords Report, 1998). By comparison with other commonly used recreational drugs these statistics are impressive."
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"A review of the literature suggests that the majority of cannabis users, who use the drug occasionally rather than on a daily basis, will not suffer any lasting physical or mental harm. Conversely, as with other ‘recreational' drugs, there will be some who suffer adverse consequences from their use of cannabis. Some individuals who have psychotic thought tendencies might risk precipitating psychotic illness. Those who consume large doses of the drug on a regular basis are likely to have lower educational achievement and lower income, and may suffer physical damage to the airways. They also run a significant risk of becoming dependent upon continuing use of the drug. There is little evidence, however, that these adverse effects persist after drug use stops or that any direct cause and effect relationships are involved."
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According to research published in the journal Addiction, "First, the use of cannabis and rates of psychotic symptoms were related to each other, independently of observed/non-observed fixed covariates and observed time dynamic factors (Table 2). Secondly, the results of structural equation modelling suggest that the direction of causation is that the use of cannabis leads to increases in levels of psychotic symptoms rather than psychotic symptoms increasing the use of cannabis. Indeed, there is a suggestion from the model results that increases in psychotic symptoms may inhibit the use of cannabis."
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The Christchurch Press reported on March 22, 2005, that "The lead researcher in the Christchurch study, Professor David Fergusson, said the role of cannabis in psychosis was not sufficient on its own to guide legislation. 'The result suggests heavy use can result in adverse side-effects,' he said. 'That can occur with ( heavy use of ) any substance. It can occur with milk.' Fergusson's research, released this month, concluded that heavy cannabis smokers were 1.5 times more likely to suffer symptoms of psychosis that non-users. The study was the latest in several reports based on a cohort of about 1000 people born in Christchurch over a four-month period in 1977. An effective way to deal with cannabis use would be to incrementally reduce penalties and carefully evaluate its impact, Fergusson said. 'Reduce the penalty, like a parking fine. You could then monitor ( the impact ) after five or six years. If it did not change, you might want to take another step.'
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"The results of our meta-analytic study failed to reveal a substantial, systematic effect of long-term, regular cannabis consumption on the neurocognitive functioning of users who were not acutely intoxicated. For six of the eight neurocognitive ability areas that were surveyed. the confidence intervals for the average effect sizes across studies overlapped zero in each instance, indicating that the effect size could not be distinguished from zero. The two exceptions were in the domains of learning and forgetting."
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In 2001, there were 331 alcohol overdose deaths and 0 marijuana overdose deaths. Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
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Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States (1) and is associated with multiple adverse health consequences, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported 20,687 “alcohol-induced deaths” (excluding accidents and homicides) in 2003. Source: www.cdc.gov...
The CDC has no reports of “marijuana-induced deaths.” (In reality, there may be 2-5 deaths each year attributed to marijuana, but this article -- bbsnews.net... -- describes how these are actually deaths attributable to other causes but “blamed” on marijuana due to the way the data is collected.)
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There is little evidence, however, that long-term cannabis use causes permanent cognitive impairment, nor is there is any clear cause and effect relationship to explain the psychosocial associations.
There are some physical health risks, particularly the possibility of damage to the airways in cannabis smokers. Overall, by comparison with other drugs used mainly for ‘recreational’ purposes, cannabis could be rated to be a relatively safe drug.
Source: Iversen, Leslie. Current Opinion in Pharmacology. Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2005, Pages 69-72. Long-term effects of exposure to cannabis. University of Oxford, Department of Pharmacology.
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REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.
Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow's export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.
For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch for hemp; Webster's New World Dictionary.
80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.
The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.
The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.
Originally posted by Amaterasu
The one thing I take issue with was your statement, "Distributing Cocaine, Heroin, and Pills and the violence that accompanies such activities should be punished."
Why? Because the violence is related to the illegality and NOT the drugs themselves. The drugs themselves virtually never create violent behavior.
So to propagate the concept that the DRUGS are the issue and not the PROHIBITION is doing a great disservice to all.
So why is Marijuana such a high profile target for the corrections / legal system in the USA?
Originally posted by Animal
Originally posted by Amaterasu
The one thing I take issue with was your statement, "Distributing Cocaine, Heroin, and Pills and the violence that accompanies such activities should be punished."
Why? Because the violence is related to the illegality and NOT the drugs themselves. The drugs themselves virtually never create violent behavior.
So to propagate the concept that the DRUGS are the issue and not the PROHIBITION is doing a great disservice to all.
While I agree with your critique I only do so to a point. While I do agree that it is the illegal nature of the drugs that often leads to violence I also think that there are other factors such as the imbalance and exaggeration of personalities (coc aine, alcohol, etc) leading to aggression and the highly addictive nature (coc aine, heroine, etc) that lead to crimes to quire cash to pay for drugs or the drugs themselves.
So yes to a degree I do a disservice to drugs in my critique but it is not entirely uncalled for.
Originally posted by Amaterasu
Of course "...the highly addictive nature (coc aine, heroine, etc) that lead to crimes to quire cash to pay for drugs or the drugs themselves." It is because they are ILlegal, and therefore scarce, and therefore are expensive, and therefore lead users to crime to obtain them.
IF they were legal, they would be cheap, easy to get, clean of adulterants, and there would be no crime associated with their use.
Originally posted by 27jd
...Alcohol, as you've already pointed out, is FAR worse in every way. Any one of us, at any time, can be killed by a drunk driver. People who use marijuana usually prefer to stay at home, away from everybody else.
Originally posted by 27jd
The psychosis that drugs like meth, and even coc aine after a long binge, often causes represents a danger to society as a whole, and that is my gauge on whether something should be readily available or not. When you've been up for 3 days straight and continue pumping amphetamines into your body, you lose control of yourself and can become paranoid and delusional. A father not too long ago here in AZ, cut his own sons head off because he thought he was the devil.
[edit on 30-11-2009 by 27jd]
Originally posted by the_grand_pooh-bah
So should we criminalize lack of sleep(which DOES cause hallucinations,i know I've had them) or religion(which makes people believe STUPID CRAP like devils that need beheading)?