From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Feb 15 2002 - 04:51:34 MST
Richard Ridge Suggested:
[url]http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_521480.html[/url]
[Hermit responds]
Mr. Giuliani is a Wrong Wing nutter.
[Caveat, all data in the following from memory]
Hermit notes that in 1999 the UK Police chiefs recommended that [i]all[/i]
police activities relating to cannabis be dropped, and that government
should provide appropriate funding for counseling/treatment on the grounds
that the cost of policing and enforcement was [i]at least [b]2
orders[/b][/i] of magnitude [i.e. 100 times] higher than the cost of
providing appropriate social services and [b]3 orders of magnitude[/b] [i.e.
1,000 times] more than the value of the trade itself.
An interesting exercise is to compare US (stringently anti-drug) and Dutch
(very relaxed about drug-use) incarceration rates (approximately
1,000:100,000 and 50:100,000 respectively) and notice that Holland has a
more diverse and higher population density than the US - and much lower
levels of crime where victims are involved (neutralizing the effect of their
quasi-legalization of cannabis).
In Europe, most jail sentences are for violent crimes. In the US the vast
majority are for soft-drug related non-violent crimes. Given the cost of
incarceration (to individuals, families and society - particularly when
mixed with draconian property confiscation laws) even in the middle of the
"Heartland" of the US, [b]Republican[/b] county officials are beginning to
question this approach. As well they should. Our small-town county pays
$60/day to put somebody in jail. When the incarcerated have families (as
many do) the welfare payments and administration costs raise that to over
$120/day. How much does a cannabis user consume per day? In our county, an
average $2 - or $60 per month. This highlights the economic lunacy of this
idea.
Unfortunately, the 60 billion odd a year spent by the US in domestic drug
enforcement activities (i.e. excluding all foreign "aid"), and their
portrayal of all drug related activities as satanic, along with the terror
of any US politician of being seen as "soft on crime" by the 50+ electorate
(who essentially determine if he returns to office or not) mitigates against
any change in attitude in the US anytime soon. Guiliani not only typifies,
but could well serve as a prototype for these assholes.
Kind Regards
Hermit
PS Thank-you for the kind words Rafael.
PPS Try http://www.bettybowers.com/newsbush.html and
http://www.whitehouse.org/news/2002/021302.asp for a giggle.
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