It's an even more disturbing graphic when you take into consideration that a full quarter of our prison population (and one half of all federal criminals) are incarcerated for drug offenses.
The body of our laws has been cobbled together gradually in fits and starts, but nowhere does this Frankenstein's monster stalk the countryside with more terror than in the area of drug legislation. Maybe the the same scenario plays itself out in other aspects of jurisprudence, but I doubt it could be any more insipid. Our current drug policy is arcane, archaic, bigoted, and unethical. It is beholden to the pseudoscience of the nineteenth century and the corrupt influence of modern tobacco & alcohol lobbyists. It preys on our fears of immigrants and other marginalized groups. It diverts attention and resources away from the real problems of which drug abuse is merely a symptom. It puts our justice system in the same draconian arena with China and (aside from our only-slightly-more-disturbing policy regarding torture, which I plan to post on soon) I'm just not politically comfortable with bedfellows like these. But with the highest per-capita prison population in the world, maybe I should get used to it.
This is an excellent article from last year that takes into consideration several issues that should get a much wider press.
A favorite one-liner from Andrew Sullivan a few weeks ago:
Busy-bodies are now trying to ban the plant salvia:
"As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one," said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Have you tried not making them illegal?
I don't know what will happen, but lately I've been thinking that our drug policy must be on drugs.
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