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2008. . .  According to the FBI, in 2006 there were 17,000 murders and non-negligent manslaughters in the United States. According to the Institute of Medicine, "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year. 2007 
 AN EPIDEMIC OF "ISOLATED INCIDENTS" US ranks 17th among world's democracies  BLACKS IMPRISONED AT FIVE TIMES THE RATE OF WHITES, LATINOS NEARLY DOUBLE WHITE RATE AP - Blacks in the United States are imprisoned at more than five times the rate of whites, and Hispanics are locked up at nearly double the white rate, according to a study released Wednesday by a criminal justice policy group. The report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based think tank, found that states in the Midwest and Northeast have the greatest black-to-white disparity in incarceration. Iowa had the widest disparity in the nation, imprisoning blacks at more than 13 times the rate of whites. . . Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut and Wisconsin incarcerated blacks at more than 10 times the rate of whites, the group said, citing Justice Department statistics from 2005. Vermont had a ratio of 12.5, followed by New Jersey with 12.4 and Connecticut with 12. States with the lowest black-to-white ratio were Hawaii, with 1.9, Georgia with 3.3 and Mississippi with 3.5. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-18-prison-study_N.htm?csp=34 AP - The total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30, 2006, was roughly 1.6 million, the government said Wednesday. That translated to a 2.8% increase from the previous year, due to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those released. Overall, the total number of people behind bars - including those held in local jails - was more than 2.2 million, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Nearly 6 out 10 people behind bars nationwide were black or Hispanic. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-27-prison-population_N.htm?csp=34 2006. . . BOB SULLIVAN, MSNBC - When pollsters ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. An MSNBC survey. . . found an overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents saying they feel their privacy is "slipping away, and that bothers me." . . . [But] only a tiny fraction of Americans - 7 percent, according to a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute - change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements. And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Carnegie Mellon privacy economist Alessandro Acquisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off coupon. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/ UNCONSTITUTIONAL SECRET FISA WARRANTS APPROVED 1980 - 322 UNCONSTITUTIONAL NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS Non-judicial warrants issued by the Justice Department 2005 - 9200 PERCENT OF DEFENSE BUDGET THAT IS CLASSIFIED 17% NUMBER OF FOIA REQUESTS 42% more pending requests than in 2002 AMOUNT OF TAX DOLLARS RECOVERED THANKS TO WHISTLEBLOWERS 1990 - $40 million NUMBER OF LAWS PASSED BY STATES SINCE 9/11 RESTRICTING ACCESS 616 http://opengovernment.org 2005. . . CROOKED TIMBER: Nearly 6 in 10 offenders in local jails are racial or ethnic minorities. In mid-2005, the BJS reports that “nearly 4.7 percent of black males were in prison or jail, compared to 1.9 percent of Hispanic males, and 0.7 percent of white males. Among males in their late 20s, nearly 12 percent of black males, compared to 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males, were incarcerated.” Some 2.5 million children and 1.5 million adults take stimulants, mostly to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Adult use has jumped sharply in recent years. . . Some 10 percent of all 10-year-old boys in this country are on attention deficit drugs. - NY TIMES WASHINGTON POST - Eastern Kentucky University's Peter Kraska -- a widely cited expert on police militarization -- estimates that SWAT teams are called out about 40,000 times a year in the United States; in the 1980s, that figure was 3,000 times a year. Most "call-outs" were to serve warrants on nonviolent drug offenders.  MURDER RATE PER 100,000 IN 2004 DEATH PENALTY INFO U.S. HAS ONE QUARTER OF ALL THE WORLD'S PRISONERS DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - More than half a million people were behind bars for drug offenses in the United States at the end of last year, according to numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The Justice Department number-crunchers found that people sentenced for drug crimes accounted for 21% of state prisoners and 55% of all federal prisoners. Even as violent and property crime rates have declined, drug arrests have continued to climb, reaching more than 1.7 million last year. The consequences of those arrests show up in the ever-increasing drug war prisoner numbers. With an incarceration rate of 724 per 100,000 inhabitants, the United States is the unchallenged world leader in both raw numbers and imprisonment per capita. With a global prison population estimated at nine million, the US accounts for about one-quarter of all prisoners on the planet. In terms of raw numbers, only China, with almost four times the population of the US, comes close with about 1.5 million prisoners. Our closer competitors in incarceration rates are Russia (638 per 100,000) and Belarus (554), according to the British government's World Prison Population report. Black and Hispanic prisoners are also more likely to be doing drug war time. More than a quarter of black and Hispanic prisoners are serving drug sentences, compared to less than 15% of white prisoners. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/409/toohigh.shtml U.S. JAILS MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY INCARCERATION RATES US: 726 people per 100,000
2004 AL KAMEN WASHINGTON POST - Executive branch agencies -- mostly the CIA, the Pentagon, the spy satellite folks and the Justice Department -- discovered more than 14 million new secrets last year, according to a report to the president by the Information Security Oversight Office, part of the National Archives. That's a 25 percent increase over the prior year in creating things that must be "secret." Just before Sept. 11, 2001, the rate was 8 million a year. So that's a substantial surge in the urge to submerge. 2003
GALLUP - The Supreme Court's decision to invalidate a Texas anti-sodomy law is generally in line with the attitudes of the majority of Americans. About 6 out of 10 Americans believe that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal, essentially the Supreme Court's position in its decision in the Lawrence v. Texas case. Gallup has asked the public about the issue since 1977, and the latest results -- from mid-May of this year -- show that 59% of the public says homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal, while 37% say they should not be. There has been a significant shift in public opinion on this issue over the last 26 years. In 1977, when Gallup first asked about the legality of homosexuality, Americans were evenly divided on the issue: 43% said gay and lesbian relations should be legal; 43% said they should not be; and 14% weren't sure. During the mid-1980s, the percentage saying that homosexual relations should be legal dropped to as low as 33%, most likely due to either widespread publicity surrounding AIDS and its prevalence in the homosexual community, or a more general conservative environment on social matters ushered in by the Reagan administration. As recently as 1988, a clear majority said that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be illegal, but since 2001, the majority has come down on the "legal" side of the issue.    CURT ANDERSON, AP - About one in every 37 U.S. adults was either imprisoned at the end of 2001 or had been incarcerated at one time, the government says. The 5.6 million people with "prison experience" represented about 2.7 percent of the adult population of 210 million as of Dec. 31, 2001, said the report, released Sunday. . . The number of people sent to prison for the first time tripled from 1974 to 2001 as sentences got tougher, especially for drug offenses. There are more ex-prisoners as well, the result of longer life expectancies and a larger U.S. population. Almost 5 percent of men in 2001 had done prison time, compared with less than 1 percent of women. Almost 17 percent of black men in 2001 had prison experience, compared with 7.7 percent of Hispanic men and 2.6 percent of white men. The percentage of black women with prison time was 1.7 percent, compared with less than 1 percent of Hispanic and white women. No matter their ethnic origin, people between ages 35 and 44 in 2001 had the highest rates of lifetime incarceration -- 6.5 percent for men, almost 1 percent for women. US HAS WORLD'S HIGHEST INCARCERATION RATE GAIL RUSSELL CHADDOCK, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - More than 5.6 million Americans are in prison or have served time there, according to a new report by the Justice Department released Sunday. That's 1 in 37 adults living in the United States, the highest incarceration level in the world. It's the first time the US government has released estimates of the extent of imprisonment, and the report's statistics have broad implications for everything from state fiscal crises to how other nations view the American experience. If current trends continue, it means that a black male in the United States would have about a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison during his lifetime. For a Hispanic male, it's 1 in 6; for a white male, 1 in 17. . . . Nor does the impact of incarceration end with the sentence. Former inmates can be excluded from receiving public assistance, living in public housing, or receiving financial aid for college. Ex-felons are prohibited from voting in many states. And with the increased use of background checks - especially since 9/11 - they may be permanently locked out of jobs in many professions, including education, child care, driving a bus, or working in a nursing home. More than 4 million prisoners or former prisoners are denied a right to vote; in 12 states, that ban is for life Global illicit drug sales are estimated between $300 billion and $500 billion each year. This rivals annual drug sales for the pharmaceutical industry, which are $300 billion. In some countries the illegal drug trade generates more money than any other single industry. A 1998 estimate found that marijuana was the fourth most lucrative crop in the United States after corn, soybeans, and hay, and was the biggest grossing crop in several states. [World Watch Institute]   The average American is caught on camera eight to 10 times a Day, law enforcement officials say. - Washington Post
 ANNUAL LIST OF 25 MOST STOLEN VEHICLES (year, make, model), by state  2002 1.4 MILLION BLACK MALES WON'T BE ABLE TO VOTE BECAUSE OF PRISON RECORDS STATES RANKED BY PRIVACY PROTECTION GLOBAL PRESS FREEDOM INDEX - U.S. COMES IN 17TH --
Prisoners get wages as low as 11 cents an hour with no benefits
or vacations. Percent of Americans who approve of Random mail searches 57% AMBER McDOWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, says a poll. The sentiment that the First Amendment goes too far was already on the rise before the terrorist attacks a year ago, doubling to four in 10 between 2000 and 2001. The poll found that 49 percent think the First Amendment goes too far, a total about 10 points higher than in 2001. [The poll] found that 48 percent of respondents agreed the government should have the freedom to monitor religious groups in the interest of national security - even if that means infringing upon the religious freedom of the group's members. Forty-two percent said the government should have more authority to monitor Muslims . . . Among other poll findings: - About four in 10 favored restrictions on the academic freedom of professors to criticize government military policy during war. Twenty-two percent strongly supported such restrictions. - While 75 percent considered the right to speak freely as "essential," almost half, 46 percent, supported amending the Constitution to prohibit flag burning.  support for death penalty - Gallup  Percent of
Americans who feel the First Amendment goes too far in guaranteeing
rights: 40%. [Editor & Publisher] Ranking of
the U.S. in world's highest incarceration rates: 1 1600 persons are released from prison each day; two-thirds rearrested within three years - Urban League Over 2 million people are in prison. . . . Another 3 million are doing time today in an outer prison of regimented society, under care of the court system, exposed to unannounced visits from parole and probation officers, mandatory urine tests, home detention, or the invisible tether of electronic bracelets. Just since 1980, the prison population has nearly quadrupled, constituting the largest and most frenetic correctional buildup of any country in the history of the world. . . . Parenti reports that yearly expenses from the correction industry are between $20 and $35 billion annually, with 'more than 523,000 full-time employees working in American corrections -- more than in any Fortune 500 company except General Motors.´ [Mark Lewis Taylor, "The Executed God"] The population of the Federal Bureau of Prisons has shot over 150,000 When President Nixon left office in 1974 there were fewer than 24,000 federal prisoners. There were fewer than 50,000 federal prisoners when President Reagan left office in 1989. The 100,000 mark was reached only in 1997. [Criminal Justice Policy Foundation] Number of no-knock
raids in Denver in 1999: 147  WASHINGTON POST: A black man is run over and killed
by a drunken driver. A typical sentence: two years in prison.
A white man is run over and killed by a drunken driver. A typical
sentence: four years in prison. A white woman is run over and
killed by a drunken driver. A typical sentence: seven years in
prison. Three similar crimes. Three equally blameless victims.
Three different punishments -- a pattern that is entirely common,
assert two economists who have studied the influence of victims'
sex and race on sentencing in homicide cases. -- Percent
of Americans who agree with the Miranda warning: 86% -- Number of
criminal court cases in Texas last year: 774,918 [Dallas Morning News] Since 1965 the percentage favoring the death penalty has climbed from 38% to 71%. Meanwhile the percentage who think the penalty is a deterrent has fallen from 59% in 1976 to 47% in 1999. GUN FACTS: DC has the toughest gun law in the country. Handguns are illegal in most circumstances; possession of an illegal gun is a felony. Bearing in mind that the city is a small jurisdiction between two gun-easy states, here are some stats on the situation in the capital: -- Since 1995, 88% of DC homicides
have been gun-related. -- Value of assets seized by
Westchester County NY prosecutors under forfeiture laws since
1994: $40 million --Percent of blacks who say
they are sometimes afraid they will be arrested without justification:
43% Number of unsolicited job applications the CIA receives weekly: 500 [Secrecy & Government Bulletin] -- Chance that an American
child born this year will end up in jail: 1 in 20 -- Percent of black men who
have lost their right to vote because of felony convictions:
13% The number of misdemeanor charges in New York City has increased 85% since the early 1990s. [New York Times] * Percent of
all post-Civil War federal criminal laws passed since 1970: 40% Increase in claims of misconduct by NYC police officers 1993-97: 45% [Joel Berger in the NYT] -- Increase
in US incarceration rate since the 1970s: 300% * Percent of prison inmates in 1930 there because of violation of alcohol laws: 33% Narcotics laws: 22% [North Coast Xpress] A survey of former New York State inmates find 63% saying they had witnessed sex among other prisoners. The figure was cited by the Latino Commission on AIDS calling on the state to allow condoms for prisoners. San Francisco, Philadelphia, DC, Vermont and Mississippi currently allow condoms in prisons. Number of black men in California
state universities: 8,800 Number of latino men in California
state universities: 30,500 Growth of California corrections
spending in last decade: 60% Number of college campus California
has built since 1980: 1 Increase in black male prisoners
in California since 1990: 12,100 Number of black male prisoners California has added for each black male student eliminated from state college rolls: 57 [Justice Policy Institute and the Boston Globe, 12/04/98] * Number of states that house
juveniles in adult prisons with no special programs or educational
services for them: 38 * Number of Americans in prison:
1.8 million
Number of prisoners
in Wisconsin county jails in 1978: 2,000 -- Incarceration
rate in America during the first three-quarters of the 20th century:
110 per 100,000.
Number of persons arrested in Chicago 1992-95 under the anti-loitering law now before the Supreme Court: 45,000 Number of new federal and state prison facilities built between 1990 and 1995: 213, a 41% increase [Critical Resistance, critresist@aol.com] Assuming recent
incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of Number of mentally ill persons currently being kept in prisons: 200,000, ten percent of all prisoners -- New York Times America imprisons more of its people than any other nation. Here are some recent stats on the American gulags:
LA has opened a $400 million, state of the art jail for inmates 92% of whom are functionally illiterate, 90% of whom are high school dropouts, and 80% of whom are in jail for non-violent drug offenses 1.7 million of the 2.2 million conversations monitored by wiretaps in 1996 were later found to be innocent. Percent of wiretap applications last year to state and federal judges that involved narcotics: 73%. Percent that involved arson, explosives or weapons: 3/10 of one percent. Number of calls intercepted: 2.5 million. [Administrative Office of US Courts] Number of freedom of information requests the government receives each year: more than 600,000. Current backlog in FOIA requests at the FBI: 15,259 [Editor & Publisher] Number of the 9,553 electronic surveillance requests by the FBI in the past ten years that related to arson, bombing or firearms: 19. [Nadine Strossen, ACLU] Number of people the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission spied on during the civil rights era: 87, 000 [Washington Post] Number of years in prison given under California's three-strikes law to a man who had stolen four cookies: 26. Number of years per cookie: 6.5 [Might Magazine] Number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes in 1993: 350,000. Number of juveniles confirmed as victims of violent and/or sexual assaults: 370,000 [The Scapegoat Generation by Mike A. Males]
Number of civil cases filed in federal trial courts in 1995: 248,000 [AP] Blacks as a percent of all drivers stopped on the Florida Turnpike near Orlando by the local sheriff's drug squad: 16%. Blacks as a percentage of all stopped drivers subjected to searches by drug sniffing dogs: 70% [Reuters] Percent of black men who can expect to spend some time in jail: 28.5%. Latino men: 16%. White men: 4.4% [Justice Department] Percent of young black men under control of the system in Washington DC: 42%. In Baltimore: 56%. [Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice] Percent of 272 lawyers in a 1991 survey who admitted to least occasional double-billing: 50%. Percent who said it was ethical: 38%. Percent who said it was sometimes ethical: 88%. [Legal Times] Number of homicides in 26 countries during 1994 of children less than 15 years of age: 1,995. Number of these that occurred in US: 1,464 (73%). Number of deaths by firearms among children in 26 countries during 1994: 1,107. Number of these that occurred in US: 957 (86%) [Center for Disease Control] Number of new federal and state prison facilities built between 1990 and 1995: 213, a 41% increase [Critical Resistance, critresist@aol.com] Number of times the NY ACLU
has challenged Mayor Giuliani in court: 16 Number of prisoners in Wisconsin
county jails in 1978: 2,000 Assuming recent incarceration
rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of -- Number of federal and state
approved wiretaps a year: almost 1,200 Percent of men 25-29 in state
and federal prison 1996: Number of mentally ill persons currently being kept in prisons: 200,000, ten percent of all prisoners -- New York Times America imprisons more of its people than any other nation. Here are some recent stats on the American gulags:
Number of fingerprint requests processed by the FBI annually: 14 million Number of states in which banks require fingerprinting of some of those seeking to cash checks: 27 --Electronic Privacy Information Center Here are just some of the things, according to the Washington Times, for which a California resident can lose his or her driver's license: consorting with prostitutes, operating a boat while drunk, violating the fish and game code, failing to pay child support, growing peyote, playing sound equipment on public transit, beating a vending or slot machine, dumping refuse on Santa Monica Conservancy lands, and using a fake ID to purchase liquor. 1.7 million of the 2.2 million conversations monitored by wiretaps in 1996 were later found to be innocent.
Percent of black men who cannot vote due to felony convictions: 14%. Number of blacks in jail for every white in jail: 7.66 [Sentencing Project] Increase in state spending on prisons, 1987-95: 30%. Decrease in state spending on higher education, 1987-1995: 18% Number of adults in prison, 1980: 320,000. 1994: 992,000. [ Justice Policy Institute] Percent of black men who can expect to spend some time in jail: 28.5%. Latino men: 16%. White men: 4.4% [Justice Department] Number of homicides in 26 countries during 1994 of children less than 15 years of age: 1,995. Number of these that occurred in US: 1,464 (73%). Number of deaths by firearms among children in 26 countries during 1994: 1,107. Number of these that occurred in US: 957 (86%) [Center for Disease Control] Percent of young black men under control of the justice system in Washington DC: 42%. In Baltimore: 56%. [Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice] Companies that spy on their workers: 63% Companies that tell their employees they're spying on them: 23%. [Washington Times] The ACLU reports that the state of Maryland has made nearly $6 million over the past two years selling information from drivers' licenses to private corporations. The percent of concealed weapons applicants in Fairfax County, VA, who are white 92%. Percent who are male: 90%. [Washington Times] Number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes in 1993: 350,000. Number of juveniles confirmed as victims of violent and/or sexual assaults: 370,000 [The Scapegoat Generation by Mike A. Males] Number of marijuana arrests in 1995: 588,963. Percent that were for mere possession: 86%. Total number of drug arrests in 1995: 1.5 million, up 41% since 1991 - - or one arrest for every 167 American citizens [FBI] Percent of police chiefs who feel law enforcement efforts against drugs have been very or fairly unsuccessful: 60% [Police Foundation] Decline in juvenile crime in Dallas credited to a curfew there instituted in 1994: 21%. Drop in juvenile crime over past three years in NYC which does not have a curfew: 30% [New York Times] Number of years in prison given under California's three-strikes law to a man who had stolen four cookies: 26. Number of years per cookie: 6.5 [Might Magazine] Number of civil cases filed in federal trial courts in 1995: 248,000 [AP] Despite state officials promising to clean up their act, a new ACLU test of police stops along Maryland's I-95 found that of 823 drug searches, close to three-quarters were of cars driven by blacks. 11/96 Number of freedom of information requests the government receives each year: more than 600,000. Current backlog in FOIA requests at the FBI: 15,259 [Editor & Publisher] Number of the 9,553 electronic surveillance requests by the FBI in the past ten years that related to arson, bombing or firearms: 19. [Nadine Strossen, ACLU] Percent of surveyed Fortune 500 companies that disclose personal information about employees to credit agencies: 70%. Percent of these companies that do not tell employees what information about them is being given to the government: 64% [David Linowes, University of Illinois] Number of people the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission spied on during the civil rights era: 87, 000 [Washington Post] Percent of motorists stopped by police along a northeastern stretch of I-95 in Maryland who were black: 71% [Washington Post] Number of "terrorist" incidents in all of North America 1988-94: 9. Number in Latin America during the same period: 821 [Nation/State Department] Percent of highway arrests made at the south end of the New Jersey Turnpike that involved blacks: 73% Percent of turnpike users who are black: 13.5% [Gloucester County NJ Public Defenders office]
2006 80.8 percent of crack cocaine defendants in 2003 were black, despite the fact that more than 66 percent of crack cocaine users in the U.S. were white or latino. Black drug offenders have a 20 percent greater chance of being sentenced to prison than white offenders. Between 1994 and 2003, the average time served by blacks for a drug offense increased by 77 percent, compared to an increase of 28 percent for white drug offenders. [US Sentencing Commission] 2003  STATE COURTS CONVICTED more than 59,000 marijuana offenders on felony charges in 2000, according to a report released this month by the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Overall, marijuana felons comprised 6.4 percent of the total 924,700 felony convictions in state courts. Marijuana trafficking convictions were 2.7 percent of the conviction total, and marijuana possession convictions were 3.7 percent of the total. Marijuana offenders comprised slightly less than 20 percent of all felony drug offenders. NORML AN ESTIMATED 163 MILLION PEOPLE worldwide consume marijuana, according to an annual report released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. More than 80 percent of the world's illicit drug users consume marijuana, authors noted. In the United States, more than 21 million Americans used marijuana and/or hashish in the past year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly 13 percent of the world's pot smokers live in the U.S., according to the report. NORML - A growing percentage of Americans believe the government should regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, according to a national poll of 1,204 likely voters by Zogby International and commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance. Forty-one percent of respondents agree that "the government should treat marijuana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: it should regulate marijuana, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children." That figure is up significantly from the 34 percent of Americans who said they supported legalizing marijuana in a 2001 USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, and is almost three times as high as the percentage who supported legalization in 1972. Hispanics (65 percent) are most likely to agree that the government should tax and regulate marijuana. Also agreeing are approximately half of Democrats, Independents, residents of the East and West, Catholics, those with some college education, adults with household incomes over $75,000 or more, and men. A separate Time Magazine/CNN poll released last October found that 72 percent of Americans favored marijuana decriminalization, a policy whereby marijuana offenders are fined but not jailed, and 40 percent favored outright legalization. The latter figure was more than double the percentage that backed marijuana legalization in 1986. 2002 For youth charged with drug offenses, the incarceration rate for latino youth was 13 times the rate for white youth. Latino youth charged with violent offenses were five times as likely to be incarcerated as white youth similarly charged. According to Human Rights Watch research, latino youth are incarcerated at higher rates than Whites in 46 of the 50 states [Building Blocks for Youth] ASSOCIATED PRESS, LONDON, 1997 - Drivers taking commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, such as Valium, are more than twice as likely to be involved in traffic accidents as those not taking the drugs, a new study says. The risk of accidents for people under the age of 45 is more than three times as great for those who take the drugs, according to the research, published in today's edition of the British medical journal The Lancet ABC, AUSTRALIA, 1998 - One in five drivers injured in road accidents in South Australia have drugs in their system, a State Government report has revealed). Prepared by the SA Office of Road Safety, it shows more than 20 per cent of injured drivers have cannabis, stimulants or tranquillizers in their blood - compared to 8.5 per cent with alcohol. The report. . . found: * 10.4 per
cent of men had alcohol in their blood compared with 3.5 per
cent of women ABC NEWS, AUSTRALIA, 1998 - A report has found marijuana use has little or no effect on the cause of car accidents. A study funded by the South Australian and Federal Governments involved blood testing 2,500 drivers injured in such accidents. . . ALSO: A report has found marijuana use has little or no effect on the cause of car accidents. However, the study has been kept under wraps until now because of fears the public could get the wrong message from the finding. . . It seems the report has been too hot to handle. The New South Wales Government has made it difficult to obtain since its release perhaps fearing that drivers may get the wrong idea. But co-author Jason White says the report does not say that it is okay to smoke and drive. NORML - A National Highway Transportation Safety Administration study indicates that alcohol is by far the leading cause of drug-related traffic accidents, while marijuana poses negligible danger except when combined with alcohol. The study, the most comprehensive drug accident survey to date, is dated October 1992, but is only now being released. A researcher familiar with the project says this is because it contradicts the government's official anti-drug line that illicit drugs are a major public safety hazard. The study investigated blood samples from 1882 drivers killed in car, truck and motorcycle accidents in seven states during 1990 - 91. Alcohol was found in 51.5% of the specimens. Just 17.8% showed traces of other drugs; marijuana was a distant second to alcohol at 6.7%, followed by cocaine (5.3%), benzodiazepine tranquillizers (2.9%) and amphetamine (1.9%). Two-thirds of marijuana- and other-drug-using drivers were also positive for alcohol. The report concluded that alcohol was by far the "dominant problem" in drug-related accidents. A responsibility analysis showed that alcohol-using drivers were conspicuously culpable in fatal accidents, especially at high blood concentrations or in combination with other drugs, including marijuana. However, those who used marijuana alone were found to be if anything less culpable than non-drug-users. The report concluded, "there was no indication that marijuana by itself was a cause of fatal accidents." [Compiled Douglas A. McVay for Common Sense for Drug Policy] Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constitute the largest group of federal inmates (57%) in 2000, up from 53% in 1990. In 2000, drug law violators comprised 21% of all adults serving time in state prisons. Over 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was due to drug convictions. As a result of increased prosecutions and longer time served in prison, the number of drug offenders in Federal prisons increased more than 12% annually, on average, from 14,976 during 1986 to 68,360 during 1999. All major Western European nations' incarceration rates are about or below 100 per 100,000. In the United States, in 2001, the incarceration rate for African-American women was 199 per 100,000, and for African-American men 3,535 per 100,000. The rate of incarceration for Hispanic women is 61 per 100,000, and for Hispanic men the rate is 1,177 per 100,000. The rate of incarceration for white women is 36 per 100,000, and for white men the rate is 462 per 100,000. The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. There were 5.9 million adults in the 'correctional population' by the end of 1998. This means that 2.9% of the U.S. adult population -- 1 in every 34 -- was incarcerated, on probation or on parole. In 1990, of the 739,960 sentenced prisoners in state or federal prisons, 370,400 were African-American. By 2001 the number of African-Americans in state or federal prisons had grown to 562,000 out of a total of 1,206,400 sentenced prisoners. Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 Americans can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime. For African-American men, the number is greater than 1 in 4 (28.5%). Corrections spending alone: $26,134 per inmate Corrections, judicial and legal costs: $43,297 per inmate Corrections, judicial, legal and police costs: $78,154 per inmate According to the Department of Justice, studies of recidivism report that "the amount of time inmates serve in prison does not increase or decrease the likelihood of recidivism, whether recidivism is measured as parole revocation, re-arrest, reconviction, or return to prison." Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,954%. Its budget has jumped from $220 million in 1986 to more than $4.3 billion in 2001. From 1984 to 1996, California built 21 new prisons, and only one new university. California state government expenditures on prisons increased 30% from 1987 to 1995, while spending on higher education decreased by 18%. In 1999 the United States spent a record $147 billion for police protection, corrections, and judicial and legal activities. The Nation's expenditure for operations and outlay of the justice system increased 309% from almost $36 billion in 1982. Discounting inflation, that represents a 145% increase in constant dollars."  Number of deaths annually From tobacco:
430,700 [Common Sense for Drug Policy] ACCORDING TO DATA from the Center for Substance Abuse Research, in the six years prior the 1985 inauguration of a full scale war on drugs, the number of deaths from drug-induced causes varied between 3.0 and 3.3 per 100,000. In the 13 years between 1985 and 1998, the rate soared to 6.3 or almost doubled. In other words, having a drug war has been twice as deadly as not having one. -- Number of new marijuana smokers a day: 6,400. [National Household Survey on Drug Abuse] Forty million Americans have quit smoking without being arrested and/or sent to prison. [Criminal Justice
Policy Foundation]--
Number of Americans in prison: 2,000,000 DRUG
REFORM COORDINATION NETWORK Percentage change in the number of marijuana arrests since Bill Clinton became president: +56 [Harper's] 22% of Marylanders support legalizing marijuana according to the Maryland Household Opinion Poll. Percent of
DC arrestees 12 or younger who tested positive for drugs, 1993:
5% Average amount
US residents spent on legal drugs in 1984: $167 Number of passengers
who pass through customs each year: 69,000,000 Here are some stats on the costs of various approaches to drug rehabilitation (from the Physicians Leadership on National Drug Policy) == $2500 for intensive outpatient
treatment The Economist reports a University of Chicago study finding that small drug pushers don't even earn a minimum wage. The average crack dealer makes just $200 a month. Hemp would rank second only to tobacco products as a cash crop for Kentucky farmers, concludes a $23,000 study conducted by Center for Business and Economy Research at the University of Kentucky. The 18-month study also says that present market demand for the crop could support the cultivation of 82,000 acres in the United States. At least 29 nations -- including Canada, France, England, Germany, Japan, and Australia -- allow farmers to cultivate hemp for industrial purposes. The report found that farmers in the European Union grew over 50,000 acres of hemp in 1997 alone. U.S. law forbids the cultivation of hemp because the plant is of the same species as marijuana. |
