Cost of the War on Marijuana?
Does anyone know the aprox. cost of the War on Marijuana? Please only answer if you have a reputable source. Thank you.
Answers:
I'd hate for eldude to get best answer since he's in denial.
If you get a number from some answerer and it's less than 20 Billion dollars, it's missing something. There's all the domestic directed "crime fighting" money, and then
the DARE program,
the amounts spent locally to find and destroy MJ crops,
the amounts spend on govt-grown MJ that is "standardized" for use by recognized medical MJ users (under Federal definitions), to replace the destroyed crops,
the costs to both sides for the many lawsuits pitting medical marijuana users against the feds for their vicious death-dealing and death-hastening prosecutions,
the costs of running the trial apparatus for those lawsuits,
the many state legislature hours spent debating a non-issue, because legislators are torn between PCness and humanity,
the countless hours spent by academic and medical researchers to prolong the stupid war or justify reinstituting the right to injest any substance,
the police equipment either purchased or diverted to find crops,
the special equipment and grants for same for the special night-vision equipment,
the court expenses to try the violators,
the prison space and supervision for the convicted imprisoned violators,
the parole-superivsion of the early-released convicts,
the holding-on-suspicion routine police practices for people with a record,
the additonal record-keeping at the local and federal levels,
the costs to the employers who count the convictions as excuses not to hire decent people;
then there's the "foreign aid" both identified and non-identified for helping foreign govts "fight drugs", including major military grants (gifts) and sales for countries that have NO military enemies,
then there's the rewards to countries for "doing well" in their domestic anti-drug operations, etc. etc.
It's disgusting. Glad I don't pay the taxes the govt. says I should. What a freaking waste.
When the herb is finally legalized, do you think records will be expunged retroactively, and lives will be restored, and lawsuits for abuse of authority will be honored? Not a chance. More medals all around.
I have spent 0 dollars on the War on Marijuana. I'm not sure who else has spent more then that. You do not clarify who has waged this war you refer to. Who is in a war against marijuana?
Well, those are going to be some cloudy numbers. First off, are we counting the police salaries of all officers involved in an arrest? Are we counting the amount of gas that went to chasing countless people down? Are we counting the expense of putting drug dealers in prison for the rest of their lives? I think that's along the lines of 40 thousand a year per inmate depending on the state, so count them up.
The point being, it's really really expensive, and I'm not an advocate of legalizing marijuana, but the overwhelming amount of money and resources that go into the "War on Marijuana" force you to reevaluate your position on the issue.
LOL @ Eldude So you think you spent 0 dollars on the war against marijuana huh? So therefore you are either liar, in denial, or not paying your taxes. I will go out on a limb and guess that you are just ignorant.
You do pay in the form of taxes. You know all those anti-marijuana commericals you see on tv? The customs officers who inspect the packages for drugs when they cross the border? The cost of keeping drug dealers in jail? Guess what you pay for all that.
But I guess all that money in taxes spent on the war against marijuana is well worth is so that your little Johnny cant get marijuana from his classmate. Oh wait he still can.
I personally dont smoke pot but I think it should be up to the individual not the governement. You dont like pot?...fine then dont smoke it. You dont want your kids to smoke pot?...fine then get off your butt and preach to your kids. Why the need to pay taxes with your hard earned money to fight a losing battle? The bottom line is if you want marijuana you can get it quite easily and that fact will not change during our lifetimes...
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