ONDCP cooks the books

The ONDCP in its irresponsible and incomprehensible war on cannabis consumers has issued a new report (using your tax dollars) on Who's Really in Jail - pure propaganda. This of course was immediately debunked by NORML. They didn't have to work too hard to do it. It's like shooting ducks in a barrel. They already had all the facts and figures at hand.

It boils down to this. The ONDCP says marijuana consumers are not in jail in large numbers for cannabis possession and they have studies to "prove" it. NORML points out their stats are based on unpublished reports from 1997 that were later superceded by government published reports with contradictory information.

However you count the percentages, the fact remains that "annual arrests for marijuana offenses have more than doubled in the past decade, peaking at a record high 755,000 arrests in 2003, at the same time that overall criminal arrests have declined. Of those arrested for marijuana offenses, nearly 90 percent are charged with minor possession only, not cultivation or sale."
Furthermore, "[a]ccording to a recent analysis of marijuana arrest data by the NORML Foundation, the enforcement of state and local marijuana laws annually costs US taxpayers an estimated $7.6 billion."

It all adds up to a colossal waste of your money.