Why are there 500,000 people in jail for Non-Violent drug crimes in the US?

Question

"Cause they thought "hey, weed is so good I'm willing to possibly throw away my whole life for it""

So, you are saying it is acceptable for us as a society to throw away someone's life because they choose to indulge in something which harms no-one but themselves. Emphasis on Non-Violent

Answer 1

Cause they thought "hey, weed is so good I'm willing to possibly throw away my whole life for it"

Answer 2

Because only the government is allowed to sell drugs legally.

Answer 3

Because it is still against the law.

If you steal a t-shirt off in a laundromat nobody would be injured either, but its against the law.

Get your senator to change the laws.

Answer 4

WHY? Because the prisons are money makers. That's why. The prisons are paid for each and every prisoner. It's F#*%#d up. Look at how many people drink alcohol. Yet years ago during prohibition, people were thrown in jail for drinking, now they can't so they find another reason.

Answer 5

Because the other 10 million got away with it.

Answer 6

And they keep building more prisons.  This is just crazy.

Edit: Arbiter, those are some nice stats, but do you really think drug users belong in jail?  Treatment, sure.  Jail, h**l no.

Answer 7

Because nobody believes in personal responsibility anymore so every time someone throws their life away they want to blame something. The temporary insanity made me do it, the bi-polar disorder made me do it, a chemical imbalance made me do it, the "disease" of depression made me do it. I'm poor and black so poverty and racism makes me behave badly. I'm a rich white child star so I had too much success too fast and I can't handle it. In the mean time middle class kids of all races behave the same way. THE DRUGS MADE ME DO IT! I'M ADDICTED.IT'S NOT MY FAULT.

People who don't like life always do drugs because drugs make them feel good. As a result everybody blames the drugs for their problems. In reality, George W Bush, Barrack Obama and all kinds of other winners who do like life use drugs as well.

People are always looking to blame everyone and everything for the failures of there loved ones because they can't bare to blame their loved ones.

You're right. It's a massive waste of time, money and resources. It also turns basically non violent drug salesmen into violent gang bangers in order to survive in such a harsh environment.

P.S. This is also why when a man cheats on a woman the woman often gets mad at the other woman instead of the man. You don't want to blame the one you love. You want to make an excuse for the bad behavior and blame an outside source.

Answer 8

because they fought the law and the law won

Answer 9

cause government like wasting tax money

Answer 10

People are nowadays living as a machine and do not know what they are doing. To get rid off from this, one has to write day-to-day activities for a week and read it, then they will understand what is life. Better to get rid off from this, one has to do meditation for about 15 minutes a day. So, such activities can somehow be reduced.

Answer 11

You are so wrong!!

It harms lots of people!

Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade with serious implications for users with the average amount of THC having more than doubled.

In the same period the number of admissions to psychiatric hospital caused by the drug soared by 85 per cent due to the fact that those who smoke the drug regularly are more than twice as likely to suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions later in life.

Teens using marijuana to alleviate feelings of depression just compound the problem.

As well as psychotic illness cannabis can cause affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.  Even worse it is linked to cancers.

Cannabis users display neuropsychological dysfunction (relative frontal lobe functioning deficits, cognitive inhibition) and attentional deficits similar to those found in schizotypal or schizophrenia patients.

Regular use can shrink the parts of the brain which control memory, emotion and aggression. The hippocampus, which is thought to govern emotion and memory averages 12 percent smaller and the amygdala, which has a part in controlling fear and aggression, 7 percent  smaller.  This suggests that heavy daily use may be toxic to human brain tissue.

Blood flow velocity is significantly higher in users and they have higher values on the pulsatility index (PI), which measures the amount of resistance to blood flow. This is thought to be due to narrowing of the blood vessels that occurs when the circulation system's ability to regulate itself is impaired.  This leads to abnormalities in the small blood vessels in the brain.

The active chemical in MJ called delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) binds to cannabinoid (CB) receptors located on several cell types in various organs.  This greatly increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory.

It can also effect physical health.  Three to four cannabis cigarettes a day cause the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. Thus there are rising levels of lung diseases such as emphysema.

In comparison to cigarettes marijuana smoke has significantly higher levels of toxic compounds, including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.    Ammonia levels are 20 times higher while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher.

It can also effect the unborn child. Scientists have identified that endogenous cannabinoids, molecules naturally produced by our brains are functionally similar to THC from cannabis and play significant roles in establishing how certain nerve cells connect to each other.  Maternal cannabis use allows THC to travel through the placenta and impair fetal brain development and impose life-long cognitive, social, and motor deficits in affected offspring.

Low doses of Ä-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), equivalent to that in the bloodstream of an average marijuana smoker facilitate infection of skin cells and can cause these cells to turn into malignant sarcoma.

People high on pot cause deaths on the roads, by committing suicide they devestate their families and there are so many other examples!!

Answer 12

Yeah..... it's ridiculous isn't it? The United States has more people in prison than any other place in the entire world. They throw you in jail for the littlest things! I don't take drugs but frankly couldn't care less if others do. They do however NOT belong in jail and their drug use shouldn't be anyone's business but their own!  

Answer 13

The political power of the religious and fascist right wing caused the imposition of draconian drug laws