Nope Jake I was talking to stlhead. Sorry for the confusion.

Obsolutely! The laws I hate the most are those that "protect us from ourselves". If you aren't harming anyone but yourself WTF should the government have anything to say about it? I'm surprised they let us play with hooks.

LOL, aint that the truth.

stlhd, I am sure this administration just hasn't thought of funding a research group to find out how bad hooks really are. I think I will write my congressman and let him know my concern.

Thats funny stuff right there..

That would just be a waste of taxpayers money to research that!

That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

Thanks for the laugh!

I don't know where the 1%number came from but here are some different numbers.


Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "In fact, the war on drugs is largely a war on pot smokers. This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that should be dedicated toward combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.

The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Since 1992, approximately six million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. Annual marijuana arrests have more than doubled in that time.

"It's time we stopped arresting adults who use marijuana responsibly," says Stroup.

YEAR MARIJUANA ARRESTS

2001 723,627
2000 734,498
1999 704,812
1998 682,885
1997 695,200
1996 641,642
1995 588,963
1994 499,122
1993 380,689
1992 342,314















Prisoners


"Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constituted the largest group of Federal inmates (55%) in 2001, down from 60% in 1995 (table 18). On September 30, 2001, the date of the latest available data in the Federal Justice Statistics Program, Federal prisons held 78,501 sentenced drug offenders, compared to 52,782 in 1995."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 11.


In 2001, drug law violators comprised 20.4% of all adults serving time in State prisons - 246,100 out of 1,208,700 State prison inmates.

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), Table 17, p. 10.


Over 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was due to drug convictions.

Source: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, 1997).


"Between 1984 and 1999, the number of defendants charged with a drug offense in U.S. district courts increased about 3% annually, on average, from 11,854 to 29,306."

Source: Scalia, John, US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Drug Offenders, 1999 with Trends 1984-99 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, August 2001), p. 7.


"As a result of increased prosecutions and longer time served in prison, the number of drug offenders in Federal prisons increased more than 12% annually, on average, from 14,976 during 1986 to 68,360 during 1999."

Source: Scalia, John, US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Drug Offenders, 1999 with Trends 1984-99 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, August 2001), p. 7.


"In 1995, 23% of state prisoners were incarcerated for drug offenses in contrast to 9% of drug offenders in state prisons in 1986. In fact, the proportion of drug offenders in the state prison population nearly tripled by 1990, when it reached 21%, and has remained at close to that level since then. The proportion of federal prisoners held for drug violations doubled during the past 10 years. In 1985, 34% of federal prisoners were incarcerated for drug violations. By 1995, the proportion had risen to 60%."

Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 715.


According to ONDCP, federal spending to incarcerate drug offenders totals nearly $3 Billion a year -- $2.525 Billion by the Bureau of Prisons, and $429.4 Million by Federal Prisoner Detention.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy, "National Drug Control Strategy: FY 2003 Budget Summary" (Washington, DC: Office of the President, February 2002), Table 3, pp. 7-9.


"The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 701 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (606), Belarus (554), Kazakhstan and the Virgin Islands (both 522), the Cayman Islands (501), Turkmenistan (489), Belize (459), Bermuda (447), Suriname (437), Dominica (420) and Ukraine (415). "However, more than three fifths of countries (60.5%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. United Kingdom’s rate of 141 per 100,000 of the national population places it above midpoint in the World List; it is the highest among countries of the European Union.)"

Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Fifth Edition)" (London, England, UK: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, 2003), p. 1.


"Over 9 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or having been convicted and sentenced. About half of these are in the United States (2.03m), Russia (0.86m) or China (1.51m plus pre-trial detainees and prisoners in 'administrative detention')." According to the US Census Bureau, the population of the US represents 4.6% of the world's total population (291,450,886 out of a total 6,303,683,217).

Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Fifth Edition)" (London, England, UK: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, 2003), p. 1.; US Census Bureau, Population Division, from the web at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html accessed July 8, 2003.


"Overall, the United States incarcerated 2,212,475 persons at yearend 2003." This total represents persons held in:

Federal and State Prisons 1,387,848 (which excludes State and Federal prisoners in local jails
Territorial Prisons 16,494
Local Jails 691,301
ICE Facilities 10,323
Military Facilities 2,165
Jails in Indian Country 2,006 (as of midyear 2002)
Juvenile Facilities 102,338 (as of October 2002)

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2003 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Nov. 2004), p. 1.


"The rate of incarceration in prison and jail was 714 inmates per 100,000 residents in 2002, up from 601 in 1995. At yearend 2003, 1 in every 140 U.S. residents were incarcerated in State or Federal prison or a local jail."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2003 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Nov. 2004), p. 2.


The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.

Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's One Million Nonviolent Prisoners (Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 1999), pg. 4.


"Since 1995 the sentenced inmate population in State prisons has averaged a growth of 3.3% per year. During this period 15 States had an average annual growth of at least 5%, led by North Dakota (up 9.8%), Oregon (up 8.7%), and West Virginia (up 8.3%). Between 1995 and 2003 the Federal system grew an average of 7.7% per year, an average annual increase of 8,532 inmates."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2003 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Nov. 2004), p. 4.


"In 2003 the growth in the number of inmates under State or Federal jurisdiction (2.1%) was less than the percentage increase recorded for 2002 (2.6%) (table 2). ( Jurisdiction is defined on page 10.) The population under the jurisdiction of State and Federal authorities increased by 29,901 inmates during 2003, smaller than the increase in 2002 (up 36,112). Since December 31, 1995, the US prison population has grown an average of 43,266 inmates per year (3.4%)."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2003 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Nov. 2004), p. 2.


According to the US Justice Department, between 1990 and 2000 "Overall, the percentage of violent Federal inmates declined from 17% to 10%. While the number of offenders in each major offense category increased, the number incarcerated for a drug offense accounted for the largest percentage of the total growth (59%), followed by public-order offenders (32%)."

Source: Beck, Allen J., Ph.D., and Paige M. Harrison, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2001 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2002), p. 14.


There were 5.9 million adults in the 'correctional population' by the end of 1998. This means that 2.9% of the U.S. adult population -- 1 in every 34 -- was incarcerated, on probation or on parole.

Source: Bonczar, Thomas & Glaze, Lauren, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Probation and Parole in the United States (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, August 1999), p. 1.


In 1990, of the 739,960 sentenced prisoners in Federal and State prisons, 370,400 were African-American. According to a 2004 report, "At yearend 2003 black males (586,300) outnumbered white males (454,300) and Hispanic males (251,900) among inmates with sentences of more than 1 year (table 11). More than 44% of all sentenced male inmates were black."

Source: Beck, Allen J., Ph.D., and Christopher Mumola, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1998 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, August 1999), p. 9; Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2003 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Nov. 2004), p. 9, Table 11.


Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 Americans (5%) can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime. For African-American men, the number is greater than 1 in 4 (28.5%).

Source: Bonczar, T.P. & Beck, Allen J., US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, March 1997), p. 1.


"Since 1982 total justice expenditures more than quadrupled from nearly $36 billion to over $167 billion, a 366% increase. The average annual increase for all levels of government between 1982 and 2001 was 8% (table 1)."

Source: Bauer, Lynn & Steven D. Owens, "Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2004), NCJ202792, p. 2.


"- Overall, local police spending represented 30% of the Nation's total justice expenditure, and State corrections accounted for the second largest portion, 23%. "- Police protection is primarily a local responsibility; accordingly, local governments spent 70% of the total police protection expenditure in the country in 2001. "- Corrections is primarily a State responsibility, and the State governments accounted for 63% of the Nation's corrections expenditure. "- Judicial and legal services in the United States were funded primarily by local (42%) and State (36%) governments."

Source: Bauer, Lynn & Steven D. Owens, "Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2004), NCJ202792, p. 4.


"Expansion of Nation's justice system, 1982-2001
"The increase in justice expenditures over nearly 20 years reflects the expansion of the Nation's justice system. For example, in 1982 the justice system employed approximately 1.27 million persons; in 2001 it reached over 2.2 million.
"Police protection
"One indicator of police workload, the FBI's arrest estimates for State and local police agencies, grew from 12 million in 1982 to an estimated 13.7 million in 2001. The number of employees in police protection increased from approximately 724,000 to over 1 million.
"Judicial and legal
"The judicial and legal workload, including civil and criminal cases, prosecutor functions, and public defender services, also expanded during this period. Cases of all kinds (criminal, civil, domestic, juvenile, and traffic) filed in the nearly 16,000 general and limited jurisdiction State courts went from about 86 million to 92.8 million in the 18-year period, 1984-2001. The juvenile court workload also expanded from 1 million delinquency cases in 1982 to nearly 1.7 million in 2000. The total of judicial and legal employees grew about 97% to over 488,000 persons in 2001.
"Corrections
"The total number of State and Federal inmates grew from 488,000 in 1985 to over 1.3 million in 2001. The number of local jail inmates tripled from approximately 207,000 in 1982 to over 631,000 in 2001.5 Adults on probation increased from over 1.3 to about 4 million persons. Overall, corrections employment more than doubled from nearly 300,000 to over 747,000 during this period."

Source: Bauer, Lynn & Steven D. Owens, "Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2004), NCJ202792, p. 6.


In 1997, there were 216,254 drug offenders in state prisons (out of a total State prison population of 1,046,706 that year). Of these, 92,373 were in for possession, 117,926 were in for trafficking, and 5,955 were in for other drug crimes. Only 41.9 percent of State drug offenders were under the influence of drugs at the time of their offense.

Source: Mumola, Christopher J., "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, January 1999), p. 3, Table 1.


In 1997, there were 55,069 drug offenders in federal prisons (out of a total Federal prison population of 88,018 that year). Of these, 10,094 were in for possession, 40,053 were in for trafficking, and 4,922 were in for other drug crimes. Only 25 percent of Federal drug offenders were under the influence of drugs at the time of their offense.

Source: Mumola, Christopher J., "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, January 1999), p. 3, Table 1.


"Nineteen percent of State prisoners, and 16% of Federal inmates said that they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs. These percentages represent a slight increase from 1991, when 17% of State and 10% of Federal prisoners identified drug money as a motive for their current offense."

Source: Mumola, Christopher J., "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, January 1999), p. 5.


"Department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them."

Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 720.


"Over the past twenty-five years, the United States has built the largest prison system in the world. But despite a recent downturn in the crime rate, we remain far and away the most violent advanced industrial society on earth."

Source: Currie, E., Crime and Punishment in America (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1998), p. 3.


"Since the definition of homicide is similar in most countries, absolute comparisons of rates are possible. For the period 1998 to 2000, the average rate (the number of homicides per 100,000 population) was 1.7 in EU Member States with the highest rates in Northern Ireland (3.1), Spain (2.8) Finland (2.6), Scotland (2.2) and Sweden (2.1). The rate in England & Wales (1.5) was below the average. For the other countries, the highest rates were found in South Africa (54.3), Estonia (11.4), Lithuania (8.9), Latvia (6.5) and the USA (5.9)."

Source: Barclay, Gordon & Cynthia Tavares, "International Comparisons of Criminal Justice Statistics 2000," Home Office Bulletin 05/02 (London, England, UK: Home Office Research, Development, and Statistics Directorate, July 12, 2002), p. 3, from the web at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb502.pdf, last accessed Oct. 12, 2002.


If one compares 1996 to 1984, the crime index is 13 points higher. This dramatic increase occurred during an era of mandatory minimum sentencing and "three strikes you're out."

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, 1997), p. 62, Table 1.


"We must have law enforcement authorities address the issue because if we do not, prevention, education, and treatment messages will not work very well. But having said that, I also believe that we have created an American gulag."

Source: Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (USA, Ret.), Director, ONDCP, Keynote Address, Opening Plenary Session, National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, September 19, 1996, Washington, DC, on the web at http://165.112.78.61/MeetSum/CODA/Keynote2.html


According to the Department of Justice, studies of recidivism report that "the amount of time inmates serve in prison does not increase or decrease the likelihood of recidivism, whether recidivism is measured as parole revocation, re-arrest, reconviction, or return to prison."

...well I guess we know where you stand on the issue, Dave.

That's brilliant!!


Thanks for keepin' it real.


HEALING OF THE NATION

Rocket Red, you take the f'ing cake.

FH07, you sound like a sharp guy but with more life experience, your opinion might change. Obviously, watching your friend have a heart attack must have been tramatic. You associate that with him having smoked marijuana the day before. I think a lot of people laughed at that association. I'd be surprised if a doctor confirmed that. I hope the doctors did some tests for some sort of congenital heart defect. Also, maybe Blades could chime in and tell us the percentage of confiscated weed that is "laced".

Anyway, I hope your friend is OK and, as VHawk said, you've done a good job in keeping your cool against this mob of treblehook-throwing stoners.

Also, I can't believe someone hasn't mentioned the absolute abuse of prescription drugs. FH07, I'd bet the use of Vicodin and stronger presription pills was higher than weed (and at least as easy to get) at your high school.

-Kaiser D.

Friend was ok. Doing all his normal stuff now...

They did plenty of tests and what not, had to wear one of those heart pulse meters for a few weeks.I think he smoked the laced stuff the day before AS WELL as a few other previous times and had unfortunately gotten into weed for about a month before that. I forgot to mention that to you all. I know the doctors didn't find anything wrong with his heart.

No problem about keeping cool. I don't take any of it personally. Everyone's got their own opinions and views, and if I want people to be cool with my opinions, then I gotta be cool with theirs. Being cool with other peoples opinions doesn't mean you have to believe them, just gotta respect em.

And unfortunately I went to a school with a lot of kids with a bit too much money and were dumb about it, and suprisingly the vicodin abuse wasn't that high. Weed was for sure much easier to get around there and vicodin was abused as well, just not nearly as much as weed.

Rocket is one funny MoFo. That Nascar stuff had me rolling...

I wish he'd write more. I'm surprised we haven't heard from that other mofo, Falwell's Right. He had some serious opinions about that devil weed.

From the "medias" standpoint, I thought ecstacy was one of the biggest drugs amongst high school kids now?

YES! Read the part where he says people should be able to do as they please AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T HARMING OTHERS. That's the key.

Not really. The media tries to do the whole scare tactic stuff by overexaggerating stuff...Several kids just got busted by feds I believe for having a couple hundred e pills. Those kids went to my school but dropped out and then it got worse for them..

[/quote]

The media tries to do the whole scare tactic stuff by overexaggerating stuff... [/quote]

wow. no way.

...you mean like the media and the government have done to "weed" for the last 60 odd years??

hmmm.

Dave-The 700,000 marijuana arrests for 2001 is probably accurate since the 2006 FBI stats are 800,000 out of 14,000,000 arrests. These are arrests! Not people that are going to prison. There's a big difference. The .7% and .3% are for the people acutally in prison for multiple marijuana charges and first time marijuana charges respectively. These stats are for marijuana only and do not include the cases where someone is charged with another felony and search incident to the arrest, weed is found and tacked on. I put the link for the FBI stats and the prison stats below. This was just a response to the plugging up prisons statement.

All of your prison stats are for drug offenses, not marijuana offenses. I can think of no better place for a crackhead than prison. These people comprise a huge portion of violent street crime. Pot heads, meth and heroin users will commit property crimes all day long to fuel their habit. I have seen dozens of people shot and killed because of something or another to do with crack cocaine. Let them rot...

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/whos_in_prison_for_marij/untangling_the_stats.pdf

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/arrests/index.html

The media tries to do the whole scare tactic stuff by overexaggerating stuff... [/quote]

wow. no way.

...you mean like the media and the government have done to "weed" for the last 60 odd years??

hmmm. [/quote]

Yea i do agree they have overexaggerated the dangers of weed too. Like I said earlier, there are RESPONSIBLE and SUCCESSFUL people who do weed occasionally for fun..

I wrote a big 'Ol post and decided to just delete it rather than stir the "pot" more.

To group a person that smokes MJ in with METH MAGGOTS is about like saying a docile lap-Poodle is the same as a Pit Bull that has attacked a killed children.

Marijuana should be a LEGAL substance. Period. The ONLY reason it is illegal is so that the Government can claim "control" over the people.

Ignorance is everywhere.

Can ANYONE provide information on a robbery, street crime, etc. that was 100% MJ motivated? (aside from maybe the theft of a Twinkie)

Could you just see a bunch of (stoned) stoners trying to break into a place...now that would be funny to watch, I don't care who ya are!



ISO

1BIgHog:

We seem to agree that we need to do more about crack and meth. But that 700,000 marijuana arrests is a waste of time that should be used to track down real drugs. Instead we give a criminal record to some high school kid who does a doobie behind the school.

"I'm surprised we haven't heard from that other mofo, Falwell's Right. He had some serious opinions about that devil weed."

Vince...I saw him the Circle K buying a corn dog this morning at 6:15am...I told him we needed his input on this one...

Fish on...

Todd