Money Spent on the War On Drugs this Year
Federal
State
Total
http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy
State and local governments spent at least another 30 billion.
Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University:"Shoveling Up: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets," January, 2001.
Source: Jeffrey A. Miron, Department of Economics, Harvard University: "The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition," December 2008.
Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 17 seconds.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Police arrested an estimated 872,720 persons for cannabis violations in 2007, the
highest annual total ever recorded in the United States, according to statistics
compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those charged with cannabis
violations, approximately 89 percent, 775,137 Americans were charged with possession
only. An American is now arrested for violating cannabis laws every 38 seconds.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of
Investigation
average of 43,266 inmates per year. About 25 per cent are sentenced for drug law violations.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics
Citing Failed War on Drugs, Former Seattle Police Chief Calls for Legalization of Marijuana and All Drugs
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/30/citing_failed_war_on_drugs_former Norm Stamper is a thirty-four-year police officer who retired as Seattle’s chief of police in 2000. He now supports the legalization of marijuana and an advisory board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and a speaker for the 10,000-member Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
With the Obama administration’s increasing focus on drug-related violence in Mexico, calls to rethink how the US has fought the so-called “war on drugs” are growing louder. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged last week that “what we’ve been doing has not worked.” But advocates of legalizing and regulating marijuana were dealt a blow when President Obama laughed off their question during the President’s first live internet town hall on Thursday.
My next guest knows what its like to be on the frontlines of fighting the war on drugs in this country and doesn’t think marijuana is a laughing matter. Norm Stamper is a 34-year police officer who retired as Seattle’s chief of police in 2000. His successor Gil Kerlikowske has just been nominated to be President Obama’s drug czar. But Norm Stamper supports legalization. He is an advisory board member of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and a speaker for the 10,000 member Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Norm Stamper is the author of “Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing” and he joins us now via video stream.
Norm Stamper, Former Seattle Police Chief. He is an advisory board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He is the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing NormStamper.com
Breaking Rank
A Top Cop's Exposé
of the Dark Side of American Policing
Norm Stamper
An Ex-Cop's Agenda
End the Drug War... Abolish the Death Penalty... Vanquish Domestic Violence... Make Schools and Neighborhoods Safer...Drive Bigotry and Brutality Out of the Criminal Justice System... Honor the Constitution... Build Respect for Cops...Justice is like a train that is nearly always late."
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Happening upon this quote by the great Russian poet and filmmaker, I'm reminded of the vast numbers of long-dead Americans denied simple justice in their lifetimes.
The train arrived too late, for example, for millions of African Americans who for centuries were legally victimized by slavery, segregation, and economic and physical cruelty.
Resistance to basic legal reforms guarantees that many millions of Americans will go to their graves as victims of sanctioned injustice. The train is not even in sight for the half million non-violent drug offenders (disproportionately poor and of color) languishing in our prisons, the result of a fatally flawed belief that prohibition works, or can somehow be made to work. Research and the experience of many other nations demonstrate how the regulated legalization of all drugs would make our neighborhoods, and our citizens, safer and healthier.
The U.S., with less than five percent of the world's population, is home to 25 percent of its prisoners, a whopping 2.3 million people. Some offenders belong in prison, many do not. We pay dearly for a vindictive system that often serves to make matters worse, much worse.
In only 12 states is the barbaric, fruitless practice of human execution outlawed. The "Innocence Projects" around the country have freed over 200 wrongly convicted persons, many of them after having served 10 or 20 or more years in prison, some on death row. No one knows how many innocent people have been put to death in this country. The memory of even one should sear the conscience of the American people, and force our lawmakers to end the death penalty.
Violence in the home denies basic security and emotional wellbeing for millions of people, most of them women, many of them children. Being brutalized, terrorized, forced to live in fear of a "loved one" is an abject form of injustice.
Guns in the hands of people who should never touch a firearm ensures unsafe homes, schools and campuses across the land, and the continuing threat of the slaughter of America's children.
Many organizations are dedicated to eradicating these ills. Here are just a few I work with and/or support:
American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org
Amnesty International, www.amnestyusa.org
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, www.handguncontrol.org
Death Penalty Focus, www.deathpenalty.org
Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org
Family Violence Prevention Fund, www.endabuse.org
Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org
Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc
NORML, www.norml.org
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