The estimated cost of housing the increasing number of non-violent drug offenders is some $315 million a year. As a result, dangerous violent criminals are being set free while non-violent drug offenders are being locked up for outrageous minimum jail sentences. For example, in 1997 Lamar Gray purchased one pound of marijuana in a hotel room in Alabama. Unfortunately the supplier was an informant for the Morgan County Drug Task Force. Lamar Grey was arrested, tried, convicted, fined $25,000 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. While, Larry Singleton raped a teenage girl, mutilated her, chopped off her arms, and left her in the desert to die. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and received the maximum penalty of 14 years in prison - of which he only served 8( Nadelmann, "Thinking seriously about alternatives to the drug prohibition" 124) .
Economically, the production of drugs in the United States would benefit the financial well being of the American government and people. Taxes should immediately be placed on drugs thus resulting in a significant increase in government income. The more money that government receives is more money that they can put towards the education of how drugs effect the human mind and body.
Drug decriminalization would also lead to a decrease in drug related crime. Drug usage does not cause crime, but rather the circumstances surrounding its illegality do. It forces drug users into contact with real criminals and the underground market. High prices caused by drug prohibition force individuals to abandon legitimate employment for the need to steal for drugs. Drug prohibition entices young individuals into the crime arena by creating an extremely lucrative black market. Drug prohibition removes the possibility of resolving drug disputes through a legal process and leaves people to their own violence oriented solutions. Decriminalization would remove the crime and violence surrounding the drug business.
