|
Despite the fact that public sentiment is rapidly turning against the drug war, federal spending on the drug war has hardly abated. The penalties for these crimes are very harsh, oftentimes involving mandatory sentences. Keep in mind that people facing felony drug charges are oftentimes not violent criminals, but may well end up in a prison where they are housed with people who most certainly meet that criteria. What do people object to about drug laws? Here are just some of the things that have citizens very concerned about the federal government’s prosecution of consensual crimes.
Huge Prison Population Federal drug laws have driven the prison population sky high, oftentimes filling prison cells with offenders who did nothing to harm or steal from anyone else. In fact, the US has 25% of the world’s total population of jailed prisoners. Contrast that with the fact that the US only accounts for 5% of the world’s total population.
The prison population, of course, is expensive to maintain, recidivism is very high and people who go to prison for non-violent drug offenses oftentimes don’t get any of the help they need—whether they need help is arguable, anyway—and oftentimes get a good education in being a real criminal from fellow inmates.
If you want another way to look at this, 1 out of every 99.1 adults in the US is in jail.
Missed Opportunities Federal drug laws oftentimes impose harsh consequences that go beyond the jail house. For instance, those who are convicted of violating federal drug laws may lose opportunities, such as being able to get financial aid for school. The justification for these measures is largely rhetorical, constituting the fulfillment of campaign promises to be “tough on crime” decades ago, when the drug war was in fashion.
Money In a time when all the talk in Washington seems to be about the horrors of the deficit, the biggest drug problem in the US is, for some, easily traceable to the fed’s habit of enforcing drug laws. The US spends in excess of $51,000,000,000 per year on the drug war. That’s billion with a “b”. This huge expenditure is rapidly being revealed to be next to useless in reducing drug usage rates and, in fact, drugs have become more available during the drug war.
The Dangers of Felony Drug Charges Felony drug charges can ruin people’s lives. It’s relatively easy to get charged with them, as well, particularly in the new situations that are manifesting where some states allow the recreational use of drugs but the federal government still prohibits that usage. The best option for people facing felony drug charges is to get a good lawyer and to hope that they can avoid the consequences of this set of policies.
Related Articles -
Drug laws, legal, law, criminal law, federal laws,
|
