>>It makes sense and it's proven that it works.
>>Dutch rates of drug use are lower than U.S. rates in EVERY category and all drugs are legal there. http://www.drugpolicy.org/global/drugpolicyby/westerneurop/thenetherlan/
>>
>>Thanks for the info - I still wonder about the 2 cultures being so different - but you make some good points. Thanks
>
>Another interesting fact:
>According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2007. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,245,301,475 per year.
>
>Source: American Correctional Association, 2006 Directory of Adult and Juvenile Correctional Departments, Institutions, Agencies and Probation and Parole Authorities, 67th Edition (Alexandria, VA: ACA, 2006), p. 16; Sabol, William J., PhD, and West, Heather C., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2007 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2008), NCJ224280, p. 21, Appendix Table 10.
>
>...sure seems like a huge waste. Keep in mind these stats are just for state prisons. Surely the local jails' numbers are way higher than this.

those numbers are bogus. They can make the average daily cost of keeping someone incarcerated say whatever they want. If you factor in all costs for everything, it could probably be $500.00 per day. Needless to say though, I doubt we are going to agree on this issue.