The Haunting Math Of America's War On Drugs [Infographic]

America, I say this will all due respect, time to grow up.

- A fellow American

I had to keep pausing the video in order to read and ponder the data and it became slightly frustrating. It's just some still frame graphics not really suited for video. It would be better delivered in a webpage that the user can scroll through at their own pace. Nice choice of music by Trent Reznor.

Imagine the costs of legal drug use--we would have tens of millions of illiterate scum with burned out brains incapable of working and on permanent disability. That would cost a heck of a lot more.

Actually, it was originally a webpage. http://www.clarityway.com/blog/the-financial-toll-drug-use-has-on-american-citizens-infographic/

While I understand some people's reluctance on most drugs, cannabis prohibition is ridiculous to anyone who views it unbiasedly. It's less harmful than alcohol by a mile and just look at the resources they spend seizing it. The drug seizures are so ridiculously biased toward cannabis. Just look at that! A totally natural, non-addictive plant. Time to give our heads a shake.

gizmowiz that is the most ignorant coment I've read today. thanks for the laugh. You do know just because its not legal doesn't mean people are not doing it. A lot of people I know do it and they are well to do and are productive members of society. Illiterate? really? you think by smoking cannabis that people will forget how to read because most start smoking as teenagers after the fact that they've learned how to read. You really do know nothing on this subject..

Illegal drugs and drugs abuse is bad. And yet my simple statement is obvious and then not so obvious to a large group of others. It is all so bizarre.

@Robot, yes, abusing drugs is bad, but clearly the laws and our war on drugs aren't helping. Making the drugs legal isn't going to cause another Great Binge. People who want to use drugs are using them. People who don't want to use drugs won't do so simply because they are now legal.

Always err towards the side of liberty. Legalize all drugs (or at least regulate them to the same extent that cigarettes are) and tax them. Release all prisoners who were sent to jail only for drug possession and put this money to use in schools or economic enrichment programs. I wonder what an extra $2 billion in federal college grants would do for our economy...

I guess it's already a tough cookie for the economy.. Legalise durgs and you'll have quite a few problems: 200k ex-convicts jobless + 20k prison staff jobless + ##k state and federal agencies disbanded = officers jobless..
Why would any government do it? Would the coffee shops bring enough tax to cover that bill?

@pehash,

exactly, thats why we should make more things like idk... singing or red hair illegal, that will mean lower unemployment and more govt jobs!!!

Oh wait....

Lol obviously its a huge drain on society. I would much rather have lazy pot heads working at mcdonalds and then spending money on taxed weed and taxed food than US paying OUR TAXES for the prisons to watch them 24/7 and all the associated costs.

This site has no business using the word Science or any abbreviation of it in its name. No...most people in jail are not there for simple possession. No scientist would repeat the same bullshit that the legalize it crowd spews that counts EVERY criminal that had drugs as ONE of the crimes as a "drug arrest"...so someone that murders someone, and also has an ounce of pot on them is counted as a simply possession arrest.

uptil I looked at the paycheck 4 $9689, I didnt believe ...that...my brother could actualey erning money in there spare time on their laptop.. there mums best friend haz done this for only 7 months and just cleard the dept on their house and purchased a gorgeous Mazda MX-5. I went here, Bing30.ℂℴℳ

@pehash you make a good point against the idealized notion of a complete surrendering of the war on drugs, but that's not what will happen in reality. Pot will be brought to the level of alcohol, regulated and taxed by the feds. Other drugs will stay illegal for many decades, and probably forever. So a prisoner spree on the job market wouldn't take place. Of course, with pot legalized and the pot market legitimized, it seems to me that we will actually curtail hard drug use and thereby curb profit for cartels. The point, though, is that anyone charged for cocaine and other hard drugs remains guilty.

@lakawak that's just as much of a narrow interpretation as the one you're criticizing. True, you lose something when you ignore the murder charge with the drug charge, but it is in fact still a drug charge, regardless of how the individual was caught with the drugs. It seems you would prefer that anyone caught with drugs while also involved in another crime in fact *not* be counted; how is this any more representative of the criminal population. Furthermore, the case of pure coincidence is a rare one. On occasion, sure, a murder happens to also have some pot in his back pocket, but how often is the impetus of that murder the pot in the first place? A drug deal gone bad, a struggle for turf, internal power struggles for cartels and gangs? Despite your supposition, the reality is people aren't just going around killing each other or prostituting for the hell of it, oh, and carrying around dope with them in case they get bored. The vast majority of people caught with the drugs are being arrested because of those drugs, directly or indirectly.

I do agree that some drugs should be legalized -- the new prohibition isn't working any better than the first one did.

I do think that this information is a bit misleading regarding the dealing/possession split. It overlooks all of the plea bargains made to get convicitions. Additionally there are numerous deals made with those who will roll over on the next level.

Change the enforcement, maybe. Pot is still not good to drive under the influance of, but DUI's with THC is hard to prosicute. So, suspected DUI with posession = a charge of possession, one easier to prove. Somebody just standing on the street, I agree that we need not waste resourses on them. Further, governors commuting the sentences of those convicted only for possession without any hint of DUI in the arrest record - this would probably be a good idea.
Though on general principal I do not like the idea of wars on Common Nouns, there have been numberous second order effect that have been benificial. Also, despite what many think, law enforcement does not focus on pot, their focus is on the harder drugs. Most police officiers I know only really make a pot arrest if the guy decides to waive his 5th ammendment rights.

Just legalize drugs. All drugs. Let the government produce all kinds of drugs. After all, manufacturing 1 pound of 100% cocaine on an industrial scale only costs 1.05 dollars. People who want to stick that pound into whatever hole or cavity it'll fit, will cease to be an addict in a hurry. And you get rid of traffickers, cops and other law enforcement agents and politicians on the take, in one single step. But those may feel the "need" for maintaing the source of that extra income.