Approximately 50% of all drug enforcement money, federal and state, during the last 60 years has been directed toward marijuana!
Some 70-80% of all persons now in federal and state prisons in America wouldnt have been there as criminals until just 60 or so years ago. In other words we, in our (Anslinger and Hearst inspired) ignorance and prejudice, have placed approximately 800,000 of the 1.2 million people in American prisons (as of August 4, 1998) for crimes that were, at worst, minor habits, up until the Harrison Act, 1914 (whereby the U.S. Supreme Court in 1924 first ruled that drug addicts werent sick, they were instead vile criminals).
Eighty percent of these government War on Drugs victims were not dealing. They have been incarcerated for simple possession. And this does not include the quarter of a million more in county jails.
Remember, just 20 years ago, in 1978, before the "War on Drugs, there were only 300,000 persons in American prisons for all crimes combined.
Some radio and television preachers have added to the hysteria by calling rock music satanic and voodoo and associating it with the drug culture. They want to outlaw rock, burn albums and books, and lock up everyone who doesnt agree with them. So does Carlton Turner. So does Lyndon LaRouche. So does William Bennet. So does Lee Brown. So does General Barry McCaffrey.
During the last three generations, Hearsts and Anslingers propaganda and lies have been relentlessly jammed down Americans throats as unimpeachable gospel truthresulting in the massive drain on taxpayers money to build the governments anti-drug machine (see Fighting the Police State in the Appendix of the paper version of this book).
And virtually every state is in the midst of the biggest prison expansion ever in Americas and the worlds history, while political vultures, concerned only for growth of their prison-related industries and job security, demand that we build more prisons and expand tax bases to pursue this law and order madness against formerly misdemeanor or even non-existent offenses.
the authorized on-line version of Jack Herers The Emperor Wears No Clothes
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