Quote Originally Posted by Dizz-Oh!
Dutch Masta, you said

Mostly anyone in jail over marijuana is in jail because they were trying to turn that little plant into a little profit. Realistically, marijuana is already a losely controlled substance in any remotely populated area.

Mostly anyone? Really?

In 2004, 44.2 percent of the 1,745,712 total arrests in the US for drug abuse violations were for marijuana -- a total of 771,605. Of those, 684,319 people were arrested for possession alone. By contrast in 2000, a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 were for possession alone.


Sources: Crime in the United States: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2004 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2005), p. 278, Table 4.1 & p. 280, Table 29; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2003 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2004), p.269, Table 4.1 & p. 270, Table 29; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2002 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2003), p. 234, Table 4.1 & and p. 234, Table 29; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2001 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2002), p. 232, Table 4.1 & and p. 233, Table 29; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 2000 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), pp. 215-216, Tables 29 and 4.1; Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1999 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2000), pp. 211-212; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1998 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1999), pp. 209-210; Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 1997 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1998), p. 221, Table 4.1 & p. 222, Table 29; Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 1996 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1997), p. 213, Table 4.1 & p. 214, Table 29; FBI, UCR for the US 1995 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1996), pp. 207-208; FBI, UCR for the US 1990 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1991), pp. 173-174; FBI, UCR for the US 1980 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1981), pp. 189-191.

I mean really dude, why don't you fact check your generalizations? Think your cool cause you've never been caught, or what???
Wow, all those facts and your attempt to try and prove me wrong. Impressive, but unfortunately it is all simply useless and you have now completely embarrassed yourself, as I can even use the information you provided on my side of the argument. You apparantly do not understand the difference between an ARREST and JAIL TIME. Again, mostly anyone serving JAIL TIME is there because they were attempting to profit off the sale or distribuiton of marijuana, big or small time. In general, distribution is considered a big crime. Posession (or useage), even in the "stricter" areas still have an extremely lenient gap of consequences as compared to distribution and cultivation. Mostly every single one of those posession charges are not the ones who are filling up the prison cells.. its the ones that are selling it.

The law does not focus on the users of the product, they focus on the SOURCE obviously. Targeting the users would do nothing, because despite legality, most people still know that marijuana use is generally harmless for the most part, but they still have to take a stance against it, being that it is illegal and a bit of an adult taboo for many. So what the law does, is target where its coming from and where its changing hands, since that is a much more effective way to control a substance, where a user is simply like a pawn in a chessgame. The bishops and rooks are the dealers, and the king is the main source (cultivation) that is difficult to get to, but once hes gone the rest of that entire drug trade branch fall apart. The PROBLEM is, posession is disputable. It can be either for the use or the sale. So thats where mostly all of the drug problems come from.. but generally, nobody gets jail over simple posession. In my area, its a $100 fine and confisgation and thats it. I live in New York, and even our neighbor state across at New Jersey have some of the strictest drug laws out, and even they dont give out jail time for (small) posession. Large posession always indicates sale. But sure, it can get you in a lot of other trouble, but theres a difference between that and jail time.