Thursday, April 16, 2009

Introduction to A Signal of Misunderstanding

I wanted an outlet. So I am giving in and starting a blog. I don’t have any idea what people will think about my perspective on life. It will probably be boring to most who stumble across it. I hope others will find it unique and something they enjoy reading. I spend countless hours surfing the web, reading anything that I might find interesting. I have a theory: sharing this information along with some of my opinions could help me justify my addiction to the internet. I’ll offer opinions on some of my hobbies; sports, books, TV, film, poker, and reading news online. I am a couch potato at heart and there are some sites I need to check every day.

Recently I have also started to get behind the effort to end America’s war on drugs. There is countless evidence that has made me believe America’s “war on drugs” is ending, one goal in this experiment is to help people understand why I believe this. Or you could say, to get people to stop looking at me like I am crazy for believing our government can make this massive shift to a sensible drug policy. I do smoke marijuana, so call me a pothead, but it doesn't change our failure to address this problem.

I have a lot of issues with this war we wage against our families; it is widespread in countries across the globe. This problem starts and stops with the United States. The New York Times discusses Hillary Clinton's admission that the US fuels the drug trade's rising violence on our Mexican border. We need to restore our leadership position in the world. A fair examination of our drug policy could help illustrate to the world that America can admit and correct past mistakes. I realize that is a strong statement and I believe drug abuse should be considered a public health concern not a criminal justice issue. Therefore we have been trying to address this issue using the wrong techniques and have only made this problem worst.

Our country has a lot of problems right now and I believe addressing our flawed criminal justice system is one of the many steps America needs to take to revitalize it. Senator Jim Webb recently introduced The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009; his Parade magazine cover story had some interesting stats. Below are some quotes from the story. I consider this legislation a critical cog in the rebuilding process America is going through. "Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals." Is one alarming fact the Senator cites on his web portal for the bill.

"America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness."

"The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners."

"All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year."

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