US Government Declares Marijuana Has No Medical Value

"The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency recently decreed that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain classified alongside heroin and cocaine as a dangerous and addictive drug."

http://www.care2.com/causes/u-s-government-declares-marijuana-has-no-medical-value.html

Well the government said it so it must be true, right?

Seriously, classified alongside heroin and cocaine?  You have to be a blithering idiot to believe that.

The issue here has nothing to do with public safety.  There is one reason and one reason only why decisions like this get made and why marijuana will never be legal in the United States again.  That reason is government jobs.  We have been in a massive growth phase of government since FDR, fueled by debt spending and easy money from the Fed.  in 1900 the federal government was 2% of GDP, now it is 25% with another 15% tacked on for good measure by the states.  Fully 40% of GDP is federal and state spending.

Just to give you an idea of how big of a boon the drug war has been for government, just take a glance at these stats, courtesy of drugwarfacts.org.

US Arrests
Year	Total Arrests	Total Drug Arrests	Total Marijuana Arrests	Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests	Marijuana Possession Arrests	Total Violent Crime Arrests	Total Property Crime Arrests
2009	13,687,241	1,663,582	858,408	99,815	758,593	581,765	1,728,285
2008	14,005,615	1,702,537	847,863	93,640	754,224	594,911	1,687,345
2007	14,209,365	1,841,182	872,720	97,583	775,137	597,447	1,610,088
2006	14,380,370	1,889,810	829,627	90,711	738,916	611,523	1,540,297
2005	14,094,186	1,846,351	786,545	90,471	696,074	603,503	1,609,327
2004	13,938,071	1,746,570	773,731	87,329	686,402	586,558	1,644,197
2003	13,639,479	1,678,192	755,186	92,300	662,886	597,026	1,605,127
2002	13,741,438	1,538,813	697,082	83,096	613,986	620,510	1,613,954
2001	13,699,254	1,586,902	723,628	82,519	641,109	627,132	1,618,465
2000	13,980,297	1,579,566	734,497	88,455	646,042	625,132	1,620,928
1999	14,355,600	1,557,100	716,266	85,641	630,626	644,770	1,676,100
1998	14,528,300	1,559,100	682,885	84,191	598,694	675,900	1,805,600
1997	15,284,300	1,583,600	695,201	88,682	606,519	717,750	2,015,600
1996	15,168,100	1,506,200	641,642	94,891	546,751	729,900	2,045,600
1995	15,119,800	1,476,100	588,964	85,614	503,350	796,250	2,128,600
1990	14,195,100	1,089,500	326,850	66,460	260,390	705,500	2,217,800
1980	10,441,000	580,900	401,982	63,318	338,664	475,160	1,863,300

While total arrests have been stable in the last 20 years at about 14 million, drug related arrests are up 60% with marijuana arrests up 240%.  Over 858,000 marijuana related arrests in 2009 alone.  Now you tell me...how many government jobs would be lost if marijuana was legalized?

The United States has BY FAR the biggest incarceration rate in the world, and it's not even close.  We imprison 743 people per 100,000 population in this land of the free while the 2nd place country, Russia, houses 577.  The list is here.

 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 7,225,800 people at year end 2009 were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole — about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.[7][4] 2,292,133 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails at year end 2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
 
Seven and a quarter million in the system.  Just how many jobs is that?  From the same article, the cost for this nonsense is nearly $69 billion per year, for the entire corrections system, that is.    

Here is an example of what a prison can look like courtesy of California.  Bunk beds stacked 3 high in a big room.  At least they have room for a table so they can play cards.  How do you like paying for this?  (And can you imagine the snoring and farting?)





And we have only looked so far at the amount of incarceration and the related cost, of the total system, of course.  This doesn't include the cost of the police and DEA enforcement, deaths in the line of duty to enforce the War On Drugs, (thank you Richard Nixon), the cost of the court system to process all of these criminals, to say nothing of the rehab business and the cost of lawyers.

Now you tell me, in an environment of massively growing government, where money is not an issue because of lack of spending discipline and the ability to get as much money as ever needed from the Fed through debt, that the government is going to cancel all of these lucrative government jobs, and I will tell you that you need a lobotomy and get it over with.  It isn't going to happen.  Believe it or not, there was actually a time, not in our lifetimes of course, when the government would end an unreasonable program.  But that was before paper money.

While people in 15 states have voted to make medical marijuana legal, the bureaucrats in DC say go to hell.  My question is, why would anybody prefer this glorified HOA known as the United States Government over freedom? After 30 years and untold hundreds of billions of dollars in the failed War On Drugs, only something as incompetent as GOVERNMENT would continue such an obviously flawed campaign.  And why not?  After all, it isn't their money.