Hello:

Obama hasn't supported my cause... And, I doubt he will. However, if MONEY is an issue, there's a HUGE pot (no pun intended) of money available to for us to save.

Americans will spend nearly $50 billion on prisons and jails in the year 2008. Almost $35 billion of that will go to incarcerate 1.2 million nonviolent drug offenders. Meanwhile, in two of our nation's largest states, California and New York, the prison budgets outstripped the budgets for higher education during the mid 1990s.

In California, the prison budget is 10% of what the state spends on EVERYTHING But it's not enough. A federal law suit is going to make California spend several billion to upgrade its medical facilities to meet the minimum standards of care. The prisons in California are bankrupting the state.

While America has about 5% of the world's population, we house the largest number of prisoners in the entire world.

While substantial increases in all categories of inmates have contributed to America's mushrooming incarceration rates, the use of imprisonment for non violent drug offenders has increased particularly sharply.

If the idea is to keep criminals away from society to keep us safe, then bankrupting us to keep NON violent offenders in jail, is doing the OPPOSITE of keeping us safe.

We need to end the drug war, and release ALL the non violent drug offenders. Then we need to plant miles and miles of hemp. It's the most efficient product available to produce ethanol. Then we can go back to EATING our corn.

In addition to saving us BUNDLES, it's the right thing to do, and it's high time (again with the puns) we did it.

excon

The benefits of hemp use for ethanol is overstated because of the petro- chemical needed to fertilize the land to grow crops . That is one of the many reasons that ethanol will never big a big factor towards energy independence.

I fully agree that non-violent pot smokers should not be serving time if smoking pot is their olny crime.. There are plenty of monetary and other penalties that could be imposed... like mandatory attending of drug counseling .

Sentencing in the US to me generally seems excessive and unbalanced to me. After all, the state does still kill people.

Im with you ex, non violent drug offenders spending long stints in prison doesn't seem to be winning the war on drugs so far.

Ky. man, 82, accused of trading drugs for sex - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081029/ap_on_fe_st/odd_pills_for_sex)

Ex:

Sadly they should make viagra / levitra / cialis illegal ;)



Even legal drugs can be abused and used criminally :o

Stop incarcerating pot smokers?
Prisons are just another way to funnel money out of my pocket into some one else's pocket. We can't have that. How would our politicians from poorer districts get their share? Not to mention all the state Department heads, Law enforcement and so on. Naw, won't work and it is not patriotic. We need a war on something going at all times. Good for the economy.
Hummm, I just noticed that the word riot is smack dab in the middle of patriotic. Ain't that sumpn.

Ex, I hear you. Personally I never understood the rational behind incarcerating a 22 year for a four finger Ziploc of Maui, when it's the punk down the street that shot the 7-11 clerk for twenty-five dollars that needs the space in Cell Block C.

Well you are right about the President -elect and his probable position on the drug war. Eric Holder ;presumptive AG is a hardline drug warrior .As U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. during the Clintoon reign , Eric Holder sought to raise marijuana penalties and restore mandatory minimum penalties for drug crimes.
Holder thought New York City's crackdown on pot smokers during Rudi's term was a fine idea and worth emulating, saying "we have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not important."

Chalk up another victory for the libertarian voters of America!!

Hello tom:

Well, that doesn't sound very radical of him. I thought he was a terrorist.

excon