Approximately 50% of all drug enforcement money, federal and state, during the last 60 years has been directed toward marijuana!
Some 70-80% of all persons now in federal and state prisons in America wouldn't have been there as criminals until just 60 or so years ago. In other words we, in our (Anslinger and Hearst inspired) ignorance and prejudice, have placed approximately 800,000 of the 1.2 million people in American prisons (as of August 4, 1998) for crimes that were, at worst, minor habits, up until the Harrison Act, 1914 (whereby the U.S. Supreme Court in 1924 first ruled that drug addicts weren't sick, they were instead vile criminals).
Eighty percent of these government "War on Drugs" victims were not dealing. They have been incarcerated for simple possession. And this does not include the quarter of a million more in county jails.
Remember, just 20 years ago, in 1978, before the "War on Drugs," there were only 300,000 persons in American prisons for all crimes combined.
-From
The Emperor Wears No Clothes
This book is available online free at jackherer.com.
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