This issue has hit me square in the face through my children!
My son is doing time in County because his wife was dealing.
And I am raising their 7yr old and 14 year old children now. I love them totally.....the grandchildren and my son and his wife.....but I have to agree that the laws are really not right in alot of cases.
The big thing I resent about the War on drugs is that they persecute the families and yet......even though they took cigarrettes off TV ads......WHAT DO YOU GET CRAMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT NOW ON TV?! DRUGS, DRUGS, DRUGS!
It's the same system making it legal to push Drugs on TV!!!
The only difference is the physisians and drug stores are the dealers making the profit from it. Never mind that the listed side effects all are so blatenly dangerous to your health.
Then a few days after the big TV push.....they will come on and tell you if you know someone who died from such and such drug.....to call this attorney.....etc...etc...etc!!
I am really amazed at this!!!
I am 63 years old now, and the world I grew up in was totally different! Now I have awaked into an alien....insane world and am coping with it.....but am just astounded at all the legal and illegal shenagen's going on around drugs.
I am glad my son and his wife are straightening out now because of this experience......but we the family are serving the same sentence in a way.
I do not agree with Prison for addicts.......Rehab yes! These are mostly very good people at their core. And they need HELP! They do not need to be put in with murderer's and theives and phycopaths!!! They have an illness that needs the proper treatment!!!
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that!!! But the system just keeps on lining them all up and sending them to prison.....not even looking at the differences in each case.
While I was at the sentencing of my son and daughter in law, That judge coldly sent young people to prison who absolutely did not deserve to go!!!! And in one day she must have sent 20 or more! Straight to Prison!!! One boy....was just riding in a car with his friends....not knowing the car was stolen.....and he got 2 years in Prison!
I wouldn't want to be that judge on "Judgement Day" !
My Goodness.....you multiply that by how many judges.....how many a day sent to prison.....and no wonder we are running out of room. They are now making a private business out of Prison's.....If this keeps going....we will have nothing but Prison's and that will be the only place to get a job too!!!!!

Yeah, it feels more like a war on PEOPLE does it not...our own citizens no less. I too have noticed that while some mood altering substances will get you locked up, others are pushed very heavily...has ANYONE ever seen a "pusher" try as hard to recruit new customers as the big companies do on prime time? Of course not...I have lost friends and neighbors to Darvon and Oxycontin, never to pot or even cocaine... Addiction is a medical/spiritual condition that mostly happens to the sensitive, the seekers among us, the adventurous. Criminalizing it is, well, criminal. I watched my nephew grow up w/o a dad because of a $20 pieceof cocaine and a 5 year prison term. Meanwhile it's common knowledge that the officials around here like their POWDERED nose candy- but they are white and wealthy so nobody cares.

Congratulations on becoming aware of this whole scam. My 82-year-old, totally abstemious mother was radicalized by her ex-son-in-law's experience and feels the same way you do. They are harming people, not saving anyone from anything...one day the government better wake up!

The government won't ever wake up....this is all a business ....I am finding out they are making big bucks out of it. The only thing that will stop it is if enough people who have been devastated by it stand up and make it change. But unfortunately the numbers affected by this isn't quite the majority yet....but it is getting there. Most of society is asleep until they get their wake up call like we have. But I think the sleeping giant is awakening slowly.

Originally posted by Barbriel
The only thing that will stop it is if enough people who have been devastated by it stand up and make it change. Barbriel, no one here WANTS to change. I asked. And they said it should be kept illegal.
See? No change.
Until, unless, you people get serious and agree to make tough decisions and be responsible, take responsibility for your lives, when it becomes legal, and stop talking out of both sides of the mouth, you will always stay right where you are at right now. Always.
You cannot have it be illegal plus not expect to get imprisoned for it.
You either have to have it be legal and get treatment OR illegal and get prison.
You can NOT HAVE BOTH people. You can NOT HAVE BOTH.
You have to make a decision. One or the other.
And what YOU choose is what you get.
The only one who can set you free, is YOU.

Fight the war against drugs!!