According to drugsense.org, in 2010 the United States Federal government along with state and local governments spent a combined $35 billion dollars on the drug war, which equates to $500 each and every second. Prisons are also over crowded, as reported by usnews.com, the United States has 5% of the worlds population within our borders but we house 25% of the worlds prisoners, 90% of those in prison are there for non-violent offenses, mostly attributed to drug use, drug trafficking and sales and other drug related offenses. The only answer to our growing prison population and increasing debt according to Art Carden, author of Lets Be Blunt: It’s Time to End the Drug War, is to legalize drugs, specifically marijuana, to recoup some of the
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He goes on by talking about how high enforcement just leads to higher prices and more revenue for those in the drug trade (Carden 42). He uses this argument to be reminiscent of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s. Alcohol was made illegal to try and combat the “destructive force of alcohol on families”. Making alcohol illegal led to huge increases in organized crime, corruption, and violence. Prohibition led to the rise of Al Capone and the rest of the famous gangsters of the day. This parallels the movement to legalize drugs that Art Carden refers to throughout his essay. As more and more money is spent on the war on drugs and the violence of drug cartels only increases people are looking towards legalization as the answer to calm the violence by taking away the monetary incentive to traffic drugs. Furthermore, Carden brings up the idea that the war on drugs has “eroded the very freedoms that we hold dear (Carden 43)”. He says that the war on drugs has caused the government to remove the doctrine of “innocent until proven guilty” in an effort to get drugs and drug dealers off the street, this can be proven true with the incredible amount of “[warehoused] productive young people in prisons” (Carden 32). According to drugpolicy.org, over 1.5 million people are arrested every year for drug policy
He goes on by talking about how high enforcement just leads to higher prices and more revenue for those in the drug trade (Carden 42). He uses this argument to be reminiscent of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s. Alcohol was made illegal to try and combat the “destructive force of alcohol on families”. Making alcohol illegal led to huge increases in organized crime, corruption, and violence. Prohibition led to the rise of Al Capone and the rest of the famous gangsters of the day. This parallels the movement to legalize drugs that Art Carden refers to throughout his essay. As more and more money is spent on the war on drugs and the violence of drug cartels only increases people are looking towards legalization as the answer to calm the violence by taking away the monetary incentive to traffic drugs. Furthermore, Carden brings up the idea that the war on drugs has “eroded the very freedoms that we hold dear (Carden 43)”. He says that the war on drugs has caused the government to remove the doctrine of “innocent until proven guilty” in an effort to get drugs and drug dealers off the street, this can be proven true with the incredible amount of “[warehoused] productive young people in prisons” (Carden 32). According to drugpolicy.org, over 1.5 million people are arrested every year for drug policy