Stuttering Freak Brother Update No.72

[chalice]

Your relative isn't.

Yeah, that's wot I meant, you dopey fucker.

[Proper Bo]

No wai!1

[megabyteme]

Possession of a screwdriver with "intent. His intent to continually screw himself seems evident. While you have to endure the real life of it, I do rather enjoy these updates. Quite surprised he was not fully jailed up while waiting for his big trial. Your Justice system must be as tattered, and askew as ours. Are your jails filled with casualties of a "War on Drugs" similar to ours, or do you tend to use them for actual criminals (obviously ones "more criminal" than your brother)?

[Proper Bo]

if by "casualties of a war on drugs" you mean junkies that have been on the rob etc, then yes. There are "real" criminals too.

[megabyteme]

if by "casualties of a war on drugs" you mean junkies that have been on the rob etc, then yes. There are "real" criminals too.

Sorry, I assumed our failed "War on Drugs" was known to be a failure outside of our borders. We have certainly pressured enough foreign countries into joining in.

Actually, what I was referring to was more of a War on the Casual Marijuana User. People have spent years in jail for non-violent offenses involving smallish amounts of pot/plants, lost their houses/cars/boats/etc. At the same time, our prison system has grown drastically, and other criminals have gotten out.

The US's "War on Drugs" has been a disaster in terms of cost, justice, and personal liberties. I am somewhat happy it is not one of the "imports" that has arrived along with McDonalds...

[Artemis]

if by "casualties of a war on drugs" you mean junkies that have been on the rob etc, then yes. There are "real" criminals too.

Sorry, I assumed our failed "War on Drugs" was known to be a failure outside of our borders. We have certainly pressured enough foreign countries into joining in.

Actually, what I was referring to was more of a War on the Casual Marijuana User. People have spent years in jail for non-violent offenses involving smallish amounts of pot/plants, lost their houses/cars/boats/etc. At the same time, our prison system has grown drastically, and other criminals have gotten out.

The US's "War on Drugs" has been a disaster in terms of cost, justice, and personal liberties. I am somewhat happy it is not one of the "imports" that has arrived along with McDonalds...

The U.S. a country of 311 million people currently houses 2 million of them in prison, this is actually one quarter of the world's prison population. From this sum you can extrapolate that either A. the inhabitants of the U.S. are inherently a great deal more criminal than the rest of us, or B. the legal system is a tad overzealous.

Also the fact that under federal law marijuana is treated as a Class A drug and carries the same penalties as possession or distribution of Heroin, while the rest of the world treats possession at least as a minor offence and in many cases not even a prisonable one.

[megabyteme]

The U.S. a country of 311 million people currently houses 2 million of them in prison, this is actually one quarter of the world's prison population. From this sum you can extrapolate that either A. the inhabitants of the U.S. are inherently a great deal more criminal than the rest of us, or B. the legal system is a tad overzealous.

Also the fact that under federal law marijuana is treated as a Class A drug and carries the same penalties as possession or distribution of Heroin, while the rest of the world treats possession at least as a minor offence and in many cases not even a prisonable one.

Some might look at our International policies, and make a decent argument for "A".

However, all points you make are facts. Some areas have even privatized prisons in hopes of being able to sustain "demand" for cells. This has also helped continue the cycle of putting more in prisons (you've gotta be able to pay for those new prisons ).

Along the same lines, it took roughly 2 years of excruciating back pain before my doctor prescribed narcotic pain meds for me. After being on morphine and oxy-codone for a year, I was getting a STRONG feeling she was getting antsy about prescribing them. I recently kicked the morphine- 3 weeks come Tuesday . It was pretty awful stuff anyway, but my point is that our government has dug themselves in deep by ruining the lives of so many marijuana users that they have to be VERY MUCH anti-narcotics (since these drugs are often harder than the villainized pot) even at the expense of pain sufferers.

TBH, if the "Legalized Marijuana" sellers here weren't such a joke, I would have preferred to use that for my pain than the expensive, high-side effect producing, narcotics. I asked my doctor about getting a prescription once, and she pointed out that real, licensed, employable doctors do not write those prescriptions. She did say that she thought I would be one of very few she had seen who would benefit. That made me respect her quite a bit- at least she is willing to admit that marijuana is less harmful than morphine/oxy-codone. There aren't enough professionals/government officials around who will take that stand under our national political climate.

[mjmacky]

We feature an Incarceration-Industrial Complex in the U.S., and due to lobbying and populist rhetoric, we've grown it into a huge industry. All of those with a vested interest prevent any real reform from taking place (since support for it isn't quite overwhelming enough).

An interesting note, for anyone that remembers the Freakonomics movingpicture, the Supreme Court decision to uphold a woman's right to have an abortion correlates strongly with reduced crime rates. However, it was the private prison system that rode those figures of success...

[Artemis]

In an update, our country has been debating decriminalising marijuana for quite awhile. We are having a general election this year and one of the right wing parties is promising if they get into parliament they will decriminalise marijuana, personally I think it is a vote grab by a minor party (ACT only has 2% of the vote) but it has set the debate up to be an election issue.

[Something Else]

if by "casualties of a war on drugs" you mean junkies that have been on the rob etc, then yes. There are "real" criminals too.

Sorry, I assumed our failed "War on Drugs" was known to be a failure outside of our borders. We have certainly pressured enough foreign countries into joining in.

Actually, what I was referring to was more of a War on the Casual Marijuana User. People have spent years in jail for non-violent offenses involving smallish amounts of pot/plants, lost their houses/cars/boats/etc. At the same time, our prison system has grown drastically, and other criminals have gotten out.

The US's "War on Drugs" has been a disaster in terms of cost, justice, and personal liberties. I am somewhat happy it is not one of the "imports" that has arrived along with McDonalds...

We don't have those stupid, cawking laws. Where you're from sounds like a modern take on Nazis, or something else. You can pretty much smoke a joint wherever you like here. (be sensible, obviousment) If a policeman caught you with one, he most likely would tell you to be a bit more discreet, or something along those lines. Unless he's a cunt, in which case he'd probably hit you with his stick.