U.S. Supreme Court orders massive inmate release to relieve California's crowded prisons

Originally posted by CanadianDream420
^ Yeah really.

I'd say remove all "prisoners" who were incarcerated due to marijuana possesion

No one is in prison in Cali for possession of marijuana. About 1,200 are for sales though. Possession of marijuana is not even a misdemeanor. It's an infraction with a $100 ticket, but usually a cop would just make you stomp it out on the ground and not even give you a ticket.

Controlled substances is another story with around 23,000 in prison. Meth, heroin, crack, pills.. stuff like that.

Almost everyone contributing to this thread feels prohibition is the direct cause of the prison over-crowding. It would make too much sense to ammend or repeal those laws and find another means of dealing with drug abuse "problems". We also know most of these "problems" are a direct result of prohibition as prohibition keeps those drug prices artificially inflated which fosters the crime, violence, and corruption - the biggest of the drug "problems." Without prohibition the value of these drugs would be economically negligible, no one would need to rob or steal to purchase drugs, and there would be no illicit cut-throat business associated with drug sales.

It is the economic factor that keeps prohibition laws in place. It is the dealers and law enforcement that benefit from prohibition, they are the ones who wish to keep it in place, and the remaining citizens that favor it have been hook, line, and sinkered into believing prohibition will eventually eliminate or greatly reduce those problems, those problems that it causes.

There is a viscious circle of economics that keeps it all spinning. Logic would dictate that concessions should be made and the people should be given their most popular and benign illegal drug in this equation - cannabis/marijuana. Doing so would make the rest of the "Drug War" manageable and possibly winable. Doing so would bring an end to the drug economy. There is too much to lose to allow that to happen.

I would end prohibition, especially pot prohibition, today if I could. And if I could do that today I would probably be assassinated tomorrow.

I say let out all the non-violent drug offenders. There's no need to make the tax payers take care of them since Darwinism will take care of them eventually.

/TOA