JAIL TIME FOR THE CINDERELLA OF SUBSTANCES

America may be dubbed the land of the free for lack of a better candidate,
but disparities in the justice system continue to plague our great nation.
For instance, authorities and legislators continue to cater to alcohol and
tobacco holdings while battering the Cinderella of substances, marijuana.

Don't get us wrong, dear reader, we advocate none of the above for pristine
health, but it's bald, puritanical ignorance to believe that one is more
deleterious or morally corrupt than the others. And far worse for the mind,
body and spirit than all three is the slammer, which is where a shocking
number of pot smokers wind up.

Chuck Thomas, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project,
recently published a study on marijuana-related incarcerations for the
Federation of American Scientists (a moderate, non-profit, science,
technology and public policy think-tank founded by members of the Manhattan
Project and sponsored by more than 50 American Nobel Laureates). "Drug
Policy Analysis Bulletin" uses raw data recently obtained from the Justice
Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, considered to be the most precise
figures to date.

Thomas reports that of the 700,000 marijuana arrests in the United States in
1997 (the most recent year with data), almost 90 percent were for personal
possession rather than manufacture or sale. Nearly 60,000 of these people
are behind bars using 12 percent of federal prison space and costing
taxpayers $1.2 billion each year.

Colombian drug lords aside, do you really think your hippie neighbor is a
major threat to public safety? Because if you don't, it doesn't make much
sense to hole him up in a cage while thugs and rapists run around loose due
to over-crowded prisons and depleted law-enforcement funds. In answer to the
mewling of drug busters who insist that people don't really get arrested or
incarcerated for minor marijuana offenses, Thomas quipped, "This study
proves them wrong. The drug war is very much about sending small-time,
non-violent marijuana offenders to jail."

For the complete report go to
http://www.fas.org/drugs/issue7.htm