U.S. imprisons more people than any other country in the world, much of it for drugs

A recent poll found that the majority of California voters support the fall ballot measure to legalize Marijuana (read here and here). Supporters cited various reasons, including tax revenue, and the failure of the war on drugs. Some people continue to oppose it, including pot growers from Humboldt.

This may seem perplexing to some, but the answer is mostly because growers with such attitudes in Humbolt are insanely greedy, selfish, and evil people. One Anna Hamilton, a radio show host who frequently smokes marijuana, stated that "the legalization of marijuana will be the single most devastating economic event in the long boom-and-bust history of Northern California."

In other words, Humboldt has an economic advantage because of criminalization. If marijuana becomes legal, there is the possibility of competing sources, free markets, and cheap weed for everyone.  I.e. People like Hamilton believe that the government should continue to imprison millions of people, ruin their lives, substantially decrease their ability to find employment, and feed gang crime because they want to make more money.

All of these significant problems are direct results of the War on Drugs. A great proportion of America's worst gangs operate on funds derived from the drug trade. Gangs war with each other and often kill not only themselves, but innocent people in the fight over turf for drug sales. It is undeniable that a substantial portion of people in prison are there for non-violent, drug-related offenses, and find it difficult to obtain employment after getting out of prison.

Presumably, the idea is that the government tries to protect people from ruining their lives with drugs. As such it is bizarre that the government response is to imprison people. Prison is where many, many people either are inclined to learn worse criminal behavior, or are forced into it from threat of gang retaliation. After leaving prison, it is difficult to find employment. The result is that these people's lives are essentially ruined, if not severely impacted. So to be clear - the government is ruining these people's lives...so that they won't ruin their own lives. Sounds like a highly effective program.  

Innocent deaths, ruined lives, and glaring injustice are at stake, and some of the growers in Humbolt can only think of their personal gain. They fear that legalization will "drive down the price of their crop and damage not just their livelihoods but the entire economy along the state's rugged northern coast."  Forget the little children being shot at in the street because of drug wars between gangs. Forget the millions of people who are scarred for life because of their prison experience or have difficulty finding gainful employment. Weed should be illegal so those greedy bastards in Northern California can keep making money off of government tyranny!

Before anyone goes apoplectic and goes on a nonsensical rant about how this shows the flaws of capitalism, it should be noted that the War on Drugs is a government-created problem. And if the government continues to keep weed illegal to the great satisfaction of Humboldt growers, that would yet again be government folly, corruption, and indeed oppression. Using government laws, regulations or mandates to make money is not capitalism.

Under capitalism, "individuals and firms have the right to own and use wealth to earn income and to sell and purchase labor for wages with little or no government control" (see dictionary.com).  As such, a system by which evil people (such as certain Humboldt weed growers) use government regulation and oppression to make money, is not by definition capitalism.

The word "greed" has been thrown around rather casually and loosely in recent years.  While greed may generally refer to desire for wealth, the truth is all of humanity has a desire for wealth. Arguably,the truly evil kind of greedy people are not those who simply desire wealth, but those who in addition use force, oppression (e.g. government regulations, government force, illegalization, etc.) to take things from others, whether it be money or freedom.

Hopefully, the more sensible voters will counter such greed. The number of people in prison for drug related offenses is ridiculous and this problem must be addressed. A U.S. Justice Department Report released a few years ago indicated the United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world (see article here). The U.S. had 7 million in prison, on probation or parole in 2006, with 2 million of these people being drug offenders. China, by comparison had 1.5 million imprisoned in 2006, according the the report.  China has roughly 4 times as many people, which means the US imprisonment rate dwarfs that of China - whom the U.S. frequently, and harshly criticizes as being communist and terrible on human rights.

The U.S. incarceration rate as of 2006 was 737 per 100,000 people, compared to 611 in Russia, and the 100 range for many Western industrial nations. According to a Department of Justice Report, in 2005, roughly 30 percent of people admitted to state prison were there for drug related offenses.

A New York Times article in 2008 noted that the U.S. has 5 percent of the world's population and a quarter of the world's prisoners.

The U.S. prides itself on being one of the freest countries in the world. To add one more definition in for the day, dictionary.com has this as the first entry for the word, "freedom" -  "the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint."

So it seems the opposite of freedom would be physical confinement or restraint, which is precisely what prison is. How exactly, does this nation have the right to claim to uphold liberty if it wins the international incarceration contest by absurd orders of magnitude?

Some analysts such as Kent Scheidegger explain that this is because of "cultural" differences, and higher crime rates in the U.S. result in more incarceration. However, that simply isn't the issue. Of course, if the government criminalizes more things, there will be more criminals. The real issue is whether all those things in fact should be criminalized. When it comes to drugs, the failed War on Drugs, the resulting innocent deaths and mass unjust imprisonment tells us the answer is overwhelmingly, no.

On the other hand, Scheidegger could have a point about "cultural" differences. Perhaps something about our culture encourages tyranny by majority, imprisonment of people on the basis of disapproval of their life choices, imprisonment of people for monetary gain (like certain individuals in Humboldt), and standing idly by while we view the devastating consequences of our vote.