WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS

LAND OF THE FREE

The US has more people in jail than any other country in the world. The US has the highest percentage of its population in jail than any other country in the world.

Don’t believe it? This is from an article in Reuters:

A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail.

According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London, more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000.

The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people is the highest, followed by 611 in Russia and 547 for St. Kitts and Nevis. In contrast, the incarceration rates in many Western industrial nations range around 100 per 100,000 people.

…

"The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens," said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports alternatives in the war on drugs.

"We now imprison more people for drug law violations than all of western Europe, with a much larger population, incarcerates for all offenses."

You can read the entire article *HERE*.

The US has 2 ½ times more prisoners than the “repressive” Russians and ¾ of a million more that the Chinese. The US has 7 times the incarceration rate of most industrialized countries.

HOME OF THE BRAVE

In a related story, the Taliban is making a strong comeback if Afghanistan. How are these related? Because it is America’s stupid “War on Drugs” that has brought on these horrific results. “Stupid” might seem a harsh adjective but “ill-advised” and “short sighted” fall far short of the mark considering the results achieved.

Afghanistan is a tribal/village culture. The tribe/village farms lands that they have farmed for centuries. There are no small farms. It is all virtually owned by the tribal chief. The tribe’s loyalty is totally to the chief. Their main crop is opium. Other crops might allow the village to subsist but opium brings riches to the tribal chief which trickle down to the tribe.

Now here come the stupid Americans who have totally failed to win the “War on Drugs” in their own country. They have decided they can win it by eradicating drugs in a foreign country and they do this by attacking (spraying) tribal farmlands. The stupid Americans are surprised that they raise the ire of the village/tribe that they attack without provocation. The Taliban is coming back! Big surprise.

Do they want to fight in Afghanistan forever? If they keep up what they are doing that’s exactly what will happen.

The worst part about it is that the drug problem in Afghanistan and the rest of the world is magnified because the Americans are unable to cope with it at home. They jail their own citizens at historical rates but it does no good and does incalculable harm.

What’s the solution? The US must decriminalize drugs. Trouble is the first politician to support that will be attacked from all sides, especially the drug dealers. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry both in dealing and fighting the dealers. It will be political suicide but it has to be done and it is inevitable.

In the meantime my opinion of the people that support the current ‘War on Drugs” is: WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS.

AFTERTHOUGHT: In the interest of full disclosure, I am not now nor have I ever been a drug user or dealer.