War On Drugs - Wasting Money

Just got hold of some interesting facts regarding America's most costly, ineffective 'war'... the War On Drugs and I thought I share them:

- More than 500,000 Americans are behind bars in federal, state and local prisons for violating a drug law. The United States represents 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prison population. The U.S. has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Definately not the 'land of the free' as advertised.

- The War On Drugs costs taxpayers roughly $40 billion annually in direct costs and tens of billions more in indirect costs. That's over TWENTY times the amount we spend on quality after school programs that help kids stay out of trouble.

- After more than three decades of the Drug War, drugs today are cheaper, purer and more easily obtained than ever before.

Mandatory sentencing is filling up America's prisons faster than ever with people that don't deserve to be behind bars. A first time offense will lead to a minimum sentence of 7 to 21 years, whereas manslaughter, robbery and even assualt don't carry such harsh sentencing guidelines. Meaning a non-violent drug offender has his life literally changed/ruined because of one mistake they may have made - which often times is merely just getting caught - whereas a violent criminal is often back on the streets in less time, a total 'skewed' judicial system severely punishing people for a moral decision rather than punishing true criminals in our society, the sex-offenders, murderers and other violent criminals.