Armoredman said:
Federal prisons, federal time, district courts, etc. Most inmates are in state prisons, not federal. Here is the AZ report of incarcerated inmates by sentance type, May 2005. For men, drug DEALING is number 3,(3,378), right behind theft, (3,398), and number 1, assault, (3,630), while women are skewed far and away towards drug DEALING as thier number one crime,(528), as opposed to the number 2 crime, theft, (367). When the numbers are added together, drug DEALING becomes number one, followed closely by assault and theft.
While I'm not going to argue that all the drug dealers will just go 'straight' if drugs are legalized, I would like to point out that legalizing would mostly eliminate their market. They simply can't compete with Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, etc. Thus, they'll have to find other work. Also, does Arizona have 'automatic dealer status' if you're caught with over a certain amount of drugs? There was an incident in florida where a man was convicted as a dealer just through the amount he had(he was forging prescriptions, and a one month supply broke the level), and even the prosecution admitted that he wasn't selling the stuff.
The question was minor drug crimes, of which drug DEALING is not, so simple drug POSESSION is a grand total of 1,970, both men and women. Thats significantly less than those incarcerated for child molestation, (2,456), and DUI, (2,606), robbery, (2,549), and murder, (2,067)
There is your breakdown by sentance type for one state. BTW, anyone stating it's always minorities going to prison? AZ populations are 43.7% Caucasion, followed by 25.1% Mexican Americans, as number 2.
No blather, no speeches, just hard cold facts and numbers.
Oh, I'll admit, the number of people in for just possession/use is small, but those of us who argue for legalization do so because we believe that the cost to society would be less with it legal. As in the price would drop, so people wouldn't have to steal(or, at least, as much) to get it. Dealers would be right out of business. Selling to children would still exist, but it wouldn't be worth it if you're only getting a few years out of them, and are looking at spending long periods in prison for doing so.
Oh, and I agree with Javafiend. The DEA is hardly an unbiased source.
rather than the violent and irrational behavior that drugs themselves prompt.
I've seen plenty of violent and irrational behavior. Number 1 cause: Alchohol. Number 2 cause: Plain stupidity.
Yet, under a legalization scenario, a black market for drugs would still exist. And it would be a vast black market. If drugs were legal for those over 18 or 21, there would be a market for everyone under that age. People under the age of 21 consume the majority of illegal drugs, and so an illegal market and organized crime to supply it would remain—along with the organized crime that profits from it. After Prohibition ended, did the organized crime in our country go down? No. It continues today in a variety of other criminal enterprises. Legalization would not put the cartels out of business; cartels would simply look to other illegal endeavors.
Like the vast, organized black market providing alchohol to kids under 21. Oh wait, they're not organized, and the general response to cops arriving is to run, not shoot at them!
And after prohibition ended, Organized crime did quiet down a bit, until it branched out into the other illegal drugs, prostitution, and such.
As long as a demand exists, a market will evolve to service it. If you make it legal, you have far more control over it. If you were to legalize drugs and prostitution, the profit potential for illegal activity would drop, and many of those currently aiding in the drug market will find honest employment to be a better deal than the remaining illegal activities.
. Pardon me for not having stats, but it pretty much should be conventional wisdom, most users of marijuana are NOT ever convicted. The sheer millions of people who use, or have used, will ring some truth to this. Is there any doubt of this? I agree on one part of the report - often a perp is rolled on this after pleading off heavier charges.