Are sentences for drug crimes rational considering it costs on average $28K per year per prisoner?

Question

The US spends more on prisons than education and health care for children combined.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/prisons/atlas.html

Answer 1

no - many of the drug laws are ludicrous - in particular the hemp/marijuana illegalization which was lobbied for and pushed through by gazillionaire William Hearst so that he could monopolize the paper/timber industry, upon realizing hemp is a renewable, ecologically and economically sound alternative for replacing most of what lumber does.

considering we're throwing people's lives into a hole because of flora put on earth by God, it is ludicrous if not outright blasphemous to even have such laws

all problem-causing drugs ("heavy drugs" like amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, etc) were synthesized for the pharmaceutical industry, at times synthesized from rather benign indigenous use of the same base plants (chewing calamus root for example) - whose use was bastardized, made horrendously dangerous by the pharmaco's, and then illegalized

yet we have yet to hear of any pharaceutical company execs imprisoned - despite their continued failures in the production of extremely dangerous drugs like Vioxx, Ritalin, et al. which continue to come out every year, and then are soon after called back for being outrageously dangerous (but of course AFTER the drugs had already been on the market for a while and already made the pharmaco's a few billion bucks, and probably killed many people)

questions: have the laws ever done anything to quell drug use? never
has imprisonment ever quelled drug use? never - it's often even easier to get drugs in prison than it is on the street so I hear

Answer 2

I am a strong believer that prisoners incarcerated on drugs charges should be in treatment facilities rather than prison. People with drug addictions need rehabilitation. Prison isn't the appropriate setting for drug users. Not only is it expensive for tax payers, the drug users will most likely engage in repetitious behavior and find themselves back in prison. It's a never ending cycle.

Answer 3

I need to know how you define "drug crimes".
I think for simple possession, then I would tend you agree with you.
However, if someone is trying to sell drugs, do you lock THEM up? What if they are selling to 10 year old kids? Do you lock them up?
What if they steal because either they were high, or needed money to buy drugs. Are these all considered "drug crimes"?
I think we need to limit penalties on simple possession, but make sure our kids stay away from drugs!!

Answer 4

that depends upon the drug crime. For someone who is an addict and can be helped to fight their addiction, the money could be better spent for treatment centers; for someone who is an occasional user, a fine would be better for a drug crime than locking him or her up. If a person is a supplier of drugs who doesn't use the drugs but only supplies drugs to others, that is the person who should be locked up and since there are fewer of those, it would cost less than we currently spend on jails for drug crimes

Answer 5

Well we could always take the convicted person and shoot them. If they live we'll shoot them again. Cost of a couple of bullets --Less than a dollar. We wouldn't need prisons then would we.

After all we would be reducing the unemployment (they probably weren't working anyway) and crime rate (not as many drug pushers on the street) all in one swift move. Then we'd have the money for health and child care.

All in favor for death to drug pushers raise your hands.

Answer 6

There is a 20:1 benefit of having treatment options versus incarceration. ie. we spend 20x the money punishing than the alternative. Nope, this makes no sense whatsoever....

Answer 7

For marijuana, it's insane. We lock up people for pot longer than for violent crimes sometimes! That's insanity!

But then again, I AM a Libertarian. You can't legislate morality. How much money have we wasted on the war on drugs? And we still have millions of drug users. If people want to get high, laws aren't going to stop them. Legalize it, regulate it, and tax the hell out of it.

Answer 8

Sentences. and the money spent to incarcerate felons, are excessive for a host of non violent crimes. I would support fines for marijuana possession.

Answer 9

you must be a libertarian

Answer 10

No, they are insane. But they are what you get when you have fear monger politcians running the country. You'd think cons would be all over this $300 billion a year waste of money but they'd rather attack health care for babies.