why do marijuana dealers and rapists get similar sentences

i was just thinking about this today, so i decided to look up the average time served for sex offenses and the average time served for trafficking marijuana, not counting first time offenses. i found that both crimes usually carry around three to five years. if you possess a rational mind you must believe rape is worse than selling a little weed. marijuana is a victimless crime, and if there is no victim there is no crime. in my opinion that is like saying pasta-free spaghetti. how could these two crimes carry the same sentence? one is obviously drastically worse than the other. personally i think it is stupid how much money our government spends to combat a mostly harmless plant and it's users who range from cancer patients to your neighbor's kids. what is the big deal with legalizing marijuana? it is a very useful plant since it can be used commercially for paper and clothing and also used medically and recreationally. it is one of the oldest surviving plants on the earth, and it's still here for a reason. because people like it, a whole lot of people obviously. why is this so hard for the baby boomers to wrap their heads around? would you rather your teenage child first experiment with alcohol then maybe get behind the wheel or get into a car with a drunk friend who has little driving experience? or would you rather your kid first experiment with marijuana and maybe watch some youtube videos and eat some doritos? because like it or not, kids will be kids, and most are gonna experiment with drugs at some point or another. i don't understand how people can say it's okay to legally sell alcohol but not marijuana. i believe it is insane to legislate outdated and unfounded morality. i thought this was america, where the government serves the will of the people, not the other way around. it actually sounds pretty oppressive to me.

Asking for common sense to prevail on this subject is like banging your head against a wall...you just end up hurting your head.

But once you realize that this prohibition has nothing to do with morality or reason but more with policing for profit, corrections corporations and laundering drug money, you'll see why NOTHING is ever done.

There are many prisons that are now privately owned and the only way to make money at these privately owned prisons is to have prisoners.

The owners of these prisons lobby our lawmakers to make crimes carry longer sentences. If a prisoner is sentenced to 10 years, that is 10 years worth of guaranteed funding.

Because Marijuana dealers take a nice chunk out of CIA profit.

We all know the answers...the real question is "what can be done about this insanity?"

maybe U.S dealers should take a hint from Mexican cartels and start packing serious heat. God knows that sitting around waiting for common sense to prevail has done nothing to help change the U.S back into a true republic of liberty and freedom. Thinking about it now, America has NEVER compared, in reality, to the fundamental ideas it is said to have been built on.

[edit on 12-8-2010 by SmokeandShadow]

Its not just america. Its the whole of the western world pretty much. What you have to remember is that with the exception of alcohol drugs that change you state of mind are considered immoral by many. Its an ingrained cultural bias and organised religion has a lot to do with it.

Chemicals are not allowed to be enjoyable as a general principle. No legal recreational drugs. Thats it, the end of discussion. You are only supposed to get bliss in church and when making babies you see. Thats where it comes from.

The issue of societal harm is used to obscure this underlying bias and as a reason to criminalise any new recreational drug invented as soon as possible. We will tolerate enormous road death, or people dying accidentally in extreme sports , but the same rates of death in a recreational chemical would be used as grounds for criminalising a substance.

Not saying some drugs aren't harmful to society at an intolerable level, a great many are. Some so much so that they should be illegal to sell in any form. However, the decision to criminalise a substance should be taken purely on the basis of real societal harm, as predicted by scientific study. Cold statistics ranked against other legal activities. Not on any other grounds.

You'll never manage to successfully make the real dangerous drugs uncool if you treat them the same as ones that people know really shouldn't be that dangerous (if they weren't illegal and made by crooks in labs with no quality control). Making them uncool is the only way to stamp out use. You cannot ever win by attacking supply. The market will beat you. You cannot attack demand by talking falsely, people will ignore you.

The policy we continue to pursue has not been successful and cannot ever be. Unfortunately there are votes in sounding tough and looking for a real solution is political poison. Thats why the situation will only get worse in future.

certainly some interesting points. it is true that prison industry makes billions a year. i think a lot of it has to do with hemp, because it would financially hurt MANY well established "old money" type of businesses. i hate that our country is reduced to blindly following the almighty dollar.

consider the ramifications of growing and selling near a school or a park. Then your sentencing might be on par with first degree murder. And if you hit that magic number of 50 live plants whether fully matured or 1 inch tall then the feds get involved, so you do state time then your federal time. I call that double jeopardy, draconian and completely off kilter to the crime vs time. UN AMERICAN

Here are all your answers (old video but still proves my point)

(part 1)
(part 2)

Hemp is THE alternative for oil..
And making it illegal tptb make the post money of it..

amazing stuff

I'm a baby boomer and my head is wrapped around it - always has been. I totally agree with you. Baby boomers are those born after WWII - we were young in the fifties/sixies. I believe those that you speak of as not being able to see things as they should be are like 10 years and older. Close in age but no cigar in thinking alike. Rape is a terrible crime and they should get more than 3 -5 years. Weed should be legal, much better than what alcohol has done to the world. Hemp is also very useful but of course linked closely to Marijuana so its use is limited.

Great post OP - now if we just don't get warnings and banned for speaking our minds.

i meant no offense to you, saying all baby boomers do not understand the problem and are ignorant on the issue was wrong and i apologize. is good to know that people of all ages understand the problems that prohibition of marijuana causes not just the younger generation. if you look at the facts it is plain to see that the prohibition of marijuana causes more problems than the actual marijuana itself. even if you don't smoke it you could appreciate the boost to the economy and the freedom for medical patients to consider it as an option.