Driven by the Drug War, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times as high as most Western European nations. The United States is a close second only to Russia in its rate of incarceration per 100,000 people. More than 734,000 people were arrested in this country for marijuana-related offenses alone.
As has been the case throughout the 1990s, the overwhelming majority of those charged with marijuana violations in 2000-- 646,042 Americans (88 %) -- were for simple possession. The remaining 12% (88,456 Americans) were for "sale/manufacture", an FBI category which includes marijuana grown for personal use or purely medical purposes. These new FBI statistics indicate that one marijuana smoker is arrested every 45 seconds in America. Taken together, the total number of marijuana arrests for 2000 far exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
Once all the facts are known, it becomes clear that America's marijuana laws need reform. This issue must be openly debated using only the facts. Groundless claims, meaningless statistics, and exaggerated scare stories that have been peddled by politicians and prohibitionists for the last 60 years must be rejected.
ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
TOBACCO ........................ 435,000
ALCOHOL ........................ 85,000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS .............20,000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS ..........17,000
CAFFEINE .........................2,000
ASPIRIN ...........................7,600
MARIJUANA ...................... 0
Did you know....
Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: More than $51,000,000,000
Number of arrests in 2014 in the U.S. for drug law violations: 1,561,231
Number of these arrests that were for possession only: 1,297,384 (83 percent)
Number of arrests in 2014 in the U.S. for marijuana law violations: 700,993
Number of these arrests that were for possession only: 619,809 (88 percent)
Number of Americans incarcerated in 2014 in federal, state and local prisons and jails: 2,224,400 or 1 in every 111 adults, the highest incarceration.
Number of states that have decriminalized marijuana by eliminating criminal penalties for simple possession of small amounts for personal use: 20
Estimated annual revenue that California raise's from taxed and regulated sales of marijuana: $59 to $110 million
Number of students who have lost federal financial aid eligibility because of a drug conviction: 200,000+
~~SOME COOL FACT's ABOUT MARIJUANA~~
1. Cannabis was first cultivated in China around 4000 B.C.
2. The original drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
3. One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees.
4. In 1989, the DEA's own administrative law judge concluded that "marijuana is one of the safest, therapeutically active substances known to man"