If we eliminated those people in prison for marijuana possession we would need a lot fewer prison beds. In Florida, possession of more than 20 grams (7/10ths of an ounce) can carry a prison term of five years. Thats great for the prison industry but not so good for the tax payers. Especially when you consider the number of breadwinners who end up in jail and as a result the family left behind end up making greater use of public assistance programs like food stamps and housing benefits.

From 1995 to 2000, the three companies (CCA, Wackenhut and Cornell ) made a total of more than $528,000 in federal campaign contributions — much of it in “soft money” given to the political parties, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C.

The Pablo Escobars of the world are probably the biggest contributors.

If you Google “CCA, Wackenhut and Cornell” you get all kinds of interest hits about questionable practices of these companies.

I’m not really in favor of wholesale elimination of drug laws, but I do think that legalizing something like marijuana, as a start, could make a big difference in freeing up law enforcement personnel to take care of other crimes and give us all a HUGE tax break in the form of reduced prison costs.

I think this is all a dream though since CCA, Wackenhut and Cornell (the three largest For-Profit Prison companies in the US) donate a LOT of campaign money to candidates who support minimum mandatory sentencing laws and want to increase profits by increasing the number of prisoners. As long as groups like Wackenhut Corp’ PAC wanna supply the cash, politicians will be glad to stay “tough on crime” - any crime.

I probably drink less than you do. I might have a glass of wine at my favorite Italian restaurant and I don’t really like beer but I might have one with plate of Hooters wings ones or twice a year. I don’t do illegal drugs but as I creep up in age, I do take some prescription drugs but I’m not happy about it. I, like you, want to be in full control of my mental and physical faculties at all times and I don’t like the way alcohol makes me feel.

I have witnessed first hand what illegal drugs can do, for my sister has fewer good brain cells than bad. I lost a cousin to illegal drug use and come from a area of the country were you can’t name a family that has not be touched in one way or another by illegal drug use.

The way I see it, it comes down to two options:

1. We can continue filling our jail cells, spend billions every year trying to enforce laws that are unenforceable, and make the drug trafficker and dealers richer and more powerful.

Or

2. Wake up and use those billions to regulate and bring illegal drug use out of the closet, education users on the harm effects of these drugs, and provide treatment programs for addiction.

After over 40 years, you would think that we would wake up and say; hey, what we are doing isn’t working so maybe we should try something else.

The illegality of drugs is not what keeps me away. I hate not being in crystal clear control of my faculties. Part of it is control, part of it is my frank understanding that I’m not going to get by on charm, good looks, or athletic ability. The gray mater is what puts food on the plate and is my best tool to con women to hang out with me. Killing it off a thin layer at a time would not be a wise investment.

But I am all for legalization of drugs and the deregulation of prescription drugs too. If I want to take a pill, why the hell should I have to pay a Doctor to give me a permission slip? Part of driving down the cost of drug care in this country would be to make drugs a legal and free market instead of a twisted maze of payoffs to GPs and the back room deals to peddle newer, but not more effective (read: more expensive) drugs.

We should put Colombia out of business. When they wouldn’t give us a deal on the land for the Panama canal, we told them to go shove it and supported the Colombian STATE of Panama in a secession. It helped that we parked our finest floating fighting vessel just off shore. Can you name ONE city in Colombia that you can’t put the word “cartel” after? Cali. Medellin. Bogota. Gosh, I don’t think coffee when I hear any of those names.

We should do the same again. Put American farmers (who get enough welfare to NOT work) to work growing Marijuana, cocoa plants, and poppy fields. Become an export nation once again, or at least one where we can fill our own demand for products. Then we tax the hell out of it (it would still be considerably better quality and cheaper than the stuff on the street). It would result in safer products, and the HUGE HUGE HUGE amounts of money that would be generated with American jobs, savings for drug users, and in taxes.

Now I can’t promise that our bureaucrats will take all that money and spend it wisely, they rarely do. But I’d much rather have American graft than Colombian graft. I’d much rather have dollars staying in this country than going to fund a giant criminal network that extends from Canada down to the depths of South America.

I would rather let people hurt and kill themselves legally without fear of ending up in jail, with free and encouraging access to health care programs. I would rather reserve our prisons for violent criminals and I’d rather have cops freed up to serve and protect instead of harass and annoy.

Just think, Prohibition gave us the Kennedys and we still haven’t gotten rid of them.