nt. In its eighth year, The Thom Hartmann Program airs live daily, NOON – 3pm, ET simulcast as both radio and TV on over 120 radio stations. into more than 50 million homes via both nationwide satellite TV systems (DirecTV and Dish Network). Sean Shealy
End the Taxpayer Funding of Crime Factories
If you had bought a vehicle called the Chevy War On Drugs, you would long ago have been arrested for burning the GM assembly line to the ground in a rage over having been sold such a lemon.
Americans have spent a trillion dollars since 1972 persecuting, prosecuting, fighting, arresting and destroying their fellow Americans in the name of 'ending the drug scourge.' The justification is that drugs destroy people's lives.
It is true that drugs have a dampening effect on the ambitions of some users. They may not do well in school. They may miss career opportunities, and end up working on the low end of the economic scale. They may miss days at work. They may have marital problems, and not manage money well.
The solution? Throw the drug user into prison.
The problem with this of course, is that prison tends to destroy people's lives. It severs them from family and community. It tends to interrupt their education. Having a criminal record puts a damper on career prospects. Being raped and beaten and terrorized tends to breed lifelong mental trauma, often leading to more serious offenses and further prison time. And for all these glorious results, we get to pay upwards of $60,000 per prisoner per year.