Quote:
Originally Posted by jgd85
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and if you really wanna get a good discussion going, lets talk about the war on drugs.
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I just actual did a research paper on this exact topic (although leaning more towards the marijuana side of it) and it was very angering. A 2005 study was done in schools to see the percentage of kids that have tried or regularly use marijuana. The numbers have only grown higher and higher as time goes on. What is sad about that is the budget the DEA and other government agencies has astronomically gone up. A few hundred million alone is spent on the anti marijuana TV ads which in most polls are shown to do absolutely nothing.
Another angering fact beside the OUTRAGEOUS budge for this anti marijuana campaign is the cost of putting a mid to high level drug dealer behind bars. The average costs to get one from the street to sentencing behind bars is around 400,ooo dollars. This absurd amount of money could be put to much better use. Needle Exchange Clinics are a lifesaver among the heavy drug users and people infected with various life threatening diseases.
"The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second." This number has grown much higher each year since 2003. Not only that but this is JUST FEDERAL SPENDING. The state is also given a large budget to fight the problem as they see fit. What the government does not seem to understand is that the flow of marijuana WILL NOT STOP.
If there is demand for a product, that product WILL be supplied.
I hope others join in this discussion, because there is much more to talk about and many more figures that are truly astounding.