http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mcFg9LneKE&feature=share

This is a topic I feel very strongly about. I encourage you to please take the time to watch this documentary.

We need to take back control. We need health care, education, not incarceration.

I want my THREE TRILLION dollars back that the US has spent on this so called "WAR ON DRUGS" that has only made the illegal drug problem in this country worse!

Drugs be it Alcohol or any other substace is a social issue, NOT a criminal issue!

ouch,, two hours

I will bookmark it for later

but I totally agree with your POV, most of the incarcerated are either impoverished or uneducated,,,,

They tried prohibition in the 20s. It didn't work, neither will prohibition for drugs. It just makes illegal trafficing come about.

I know its long. But I promise its worth it. There are small movements around the country to try & make changes. Occupy for prisions.

Legalize drugs and then they won't be against the law.

P.R.I.S.O.N Inc.

Poor drug addicts create revenue!
Punish and remove from society AND profitable.

Perfect!

I will take the time and watch this.

This is a subject I follow and have great concern over.

As long as it's profitable to NOT treat addicts they will continue to be criminals. I find it disgusting that profit once again is more important than human life...but seems to be our society.
A poor drug addict is the ultimate of the bottom feeders...
in the eyes of the majority of society. When it personally touches our lives we care, generally...we could give a rats *** about a poor druggie.
Very disturbing actually.

The personal use of a addictive substance should not put somebody in prison.

Thank you so much. I saw this documentary a while ago and was hoping to show it to someone else but couldn't seem to find it.

I just watched it and it is nothing more then a propaganda piece by a bunch of admitted and convicted drug addicts trying to make their high legal.

Plus half the people interviewed are major truthers and anti Republican so their position on this is anything the Republican party is against.

Poisoned well fallacy. Who they are doesn't matter, what matters is if they are right or wrong.



Just because the Republican Party opposes legalization, that doesn't mean they are right. Statistics show that legalization reduces consumption. We went through that right here in the USA with Prohibition. This would free up prison space, close some prisons, reduce crime, save lives, etc. Knowing this, the question becomes WHY do Republicans oppose legalization?

Not true, most drug addicts commit other crimes while high on drugs.

@Lpdon...you hate drug addicts too????????

Economists estimate that legalizing drugs would drop the price of drugs by a factor of 3x to 20x. Drug addicts would be able to live mostly normal lives and even maintain a job while using. They wouldn't have to commit crimes to make the money necessary to get their drug of choice.

If they commit other crimes, then punish them for the crimes they commit. But you won't have cops dying in drug deals, you won't have children shot in drug wars, you won't have the violence south of our borders, you won't have drug gangs with a strangle hold on our inner cities. If you think that crime will go up when drugs are legalized, then you have lived a very sheltered life.

QFT.

Thank you to all who commented. I would like to continue this conversation, and I will be sending you friend requests.
My question now is, what do we do to decriminalize drugs.

I know its an uphill battle, The alcohol & tobacco industry would do all they could to keep their drugs legal. I know its a way to make a profit off of the poor.

But, in the big picture, I see money for medicare. Money for higher education. Reducing the national debt...etc...

I do not use illegal drugs. I may have a drink or two every so often. But, it is something that humans have done since the inception of time.

I am just so sick and tired of seeing people locked up for non violent & consentual "crimes".
I am tired of TRILLIONS of tax dollars go to this "WAR" & watching my mother who has worked since she was 9 years old, dying and suffering, because she can no longer afford healtcare, and does not quality for public healthcare.

I am ready to do my part, write to politicians, protest, whatever it takes to try to make a change. I am grateful that you all took the time out to read and comment. Even if you do not agree with me.

I don't support using tax money for healthcare, but legalizing would have benefits in your mother's case. Drug companies currently spend around $403,000,000 and seven years in order to get a new drug passed through the FDA. If all drugs were legal, your mother's doctor could proscribe cutting edge (but largely untested) drugs, which would be incredibly cheap to buy. This is already possible in many countries, it works to reduce the cost of healthcare.

"MOST"???? No sir, not most. However, decriminalizing drugs, would not make it a free for all. If a person committed a crime on drugs, they would (and should) still be held accountable for the crime they commit..
For example using the drug alcohol is currently legal in this country, however, if you consume it in public, or you drive while under the influence of it, or rob the liquor store, you are commiting a crime. And therefore are charged accordingly. And Alcohol contributes to more deaths in this country than ALL illegal drugs combined including violent drug related deaths.

Also note, that first offense drinking and driving carrys a mandatory minimum of 2 days in jail in most states yet is known to kill thousands of people every year.

First offense POSSESSION of a relatively small amount of a CDC carrys a mandatory minimum of 5 years in Prision...just for possession...and I am not talking kilos of cocaine here.

How about me?

I don't have anything that, by definition, could get me legally on marijuana. However, it's most dominant side effects.. Gawds I'd love it.

Sleeping Disorder - Check.
Eating Properly - Check.
Anti-Social in Public - Check.

Instead, they want to give me drugs to "cure" these issues.
By risking giving me 50 thousand other side effects.

Sleeping Pills - MJ, Heath Ledger
They gave me some pill for increasing my hunger..
..my stomach started to bleed.
Anti-Depressants and Anxiety Meds? Don't get me started..