And it's not just the dollars but the cost in human capital, and the cost in trust in the government. We jailed half of a generation of young black men for largely non-violent drug offenses. Selective enforcement has made the war on drugs look like a war on people who are young, poor, male, and non-white.
Still, I think we're probably stuck with the current situation until another generation passes on and the Baby Boomers become the eldest Americans. On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 9:17 PM, Maureen wrote: > I don't know. I think we are rapidly approaching a time when we can > no longer afford to enforce prohibition with so little return on the > investment. 250 million dollars a year to incarcerate people whose > only crime is possession of pot might fly in a robust economy, but I > doubt it will find many supporters in the current economic > environment. If you look at the cost of drug enforcement versus the > number of arrests of dealers, it works out to something like 20 > million per dealer arrested. That's a very high price to pay for such > a small problem. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:286520 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
