[420 Girl]

At no other period in the history of the United States has there been so many people incarcerated. Ever since the beginning of the 21st. century has America had the dubious distinction as being the country with the most populous prison population. Our penal system today uses billions of tax payers dollars with no real return on the investment in our correctional institutions. We have the highest rate of repeat offenders who return to correctional facilities after they have been first released. The rate of released offenders that are assimilated successfully into communities is at the lowest level in the world today. These facts under- score the imperative need to rewrite laws that target the most common offences that are taking place today.

" Sometimes a great notion seems to be one of immediate hypocrisy" In some respects of our legal system this is true. Where parts of the country legalizes some things while the rest of the country refuses to recognize what is legal in that part is illegal in the other parts. In Europe, for example the legality of certain drugs has proved to be a great source of revenue while at the same time minimizes the volume of persons arrested for drug related charges entering their correctional facilities. It has worked in that their prisons are no where near the % of the population of the United States. Individuals who desire a certain drug can go to a designated area and actually purchase their drug of choice with-out fear of being arrested. This scenario can work in the United States and save the taxpayer billions of dollars while at the same time free up the largest group of prison inmates that pose no real threat to society. One of the biggest factors is that 47% of all drug related arrests are just for marijuana offences. Nearly 60% of people in our state prisons serving time for this type of drug related offence had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity.

Another factor to consider is the fact that the increase in United States prisons is directly related to loss of income, loss of jobs, lost opportunity, lack of adequate education, the insolvency of the family unit, and the increasing loss of structured after school activities that used to be free. Now they are cost prohibitive in that many of our youth can't afford to even consider such things as sports, music, or the arts. This breeds contempt, boredom, and a temptation toward involvement in gangs and gang related activity. All of these are directly proportional to the rate of individuals who become ,yes, victims of our society that now make up the largest % of prison inmates. Sure, America has had gangs
but not to the extent we have today.


The best approach toward solving this crisis is to legalize marijuana and tax the sale of it. There is no validly that marijuana use will lead to hard core drugs like heroin or cocaine. In fact marijuana use is proved to be very beneficial for medical uses and for a sedative as well. This will add billions of revenue to local, state and federal governments. In turn this extra funding will be used to provide the programs that are necessary to encourage our youth to be able to avoid the temptation of being lurid into gangs and gang related activity. Those offenders whose only offence was marijuana use will free up the extensive over-crowded prisons and thus saving additional billions of tax payers money. Just think of the possibilities of what these extra funds should be used for. Cover Universal Health Care, provide more educational opportunities, and increase living wage jobs just to name a few of the urgent uses of this extra revenue that will be available once we change our laws. We have to remember that to reduce crime and corruption is to provide the resources and employment opportunities with real living wages in any given area and in that way we will be able to eliminate a national disgrace that is upon us today.


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