The cost to tax payers of your "War On Drugs"

there are an estimated 50k - 75k (for sake of minimization all figures are calculated off 50k ) people in British prisons due to their involvement in cannabis this makes up approximately 58.77% of the total British prison population in 2010 (85,000 inmates) , it costs the British tax payer £41,000 PER YEAR to house ONE inmate, this means that of the £36'285'000'000 ( thirty-six billion two hundred eighty-five million) every year of YOUR taxes, a WHOPPING £2'050'000'000 (two billion fifty million) is spent keeping people who have: been caught with cannabis, been caught dealing cannabis, (obviously a lot will have other charges as well) locked up because they are seen as a "danger" to society. This is £32.72 per year for every inhabitant of the United Kingdom (assuming everyone pays taxes, which they don't) that goes to keeping cannabis users locked up

Not only is the war on drugs pointless, and failing, (many people still choosing to use the "real thing" despite the availability of many "legal highs" that mimic the effects of most narcotics) it is a MASSIVE drain on the tax payers, just in keeping the ones that were caught off the streets,

This is before you consider the money spent on the man hours spent trying to track down and arrest these "dangerous criminals"

the whole reason why the drug trade has BECOME such a dangerous and seedy industry is because the government won't take responsibility for it.
If recreational drugs were to be legalized, they could be controlled and the purity of the drugs will be constant country wide (i.e, no rat poison cut with coke, no sprayed weed, no heroin cut with god knows what) also, it would give the government the ability to TAX these products, creating a new source of income. (which i, personally am against, but the government are always looking to make money off us some how)

http://hashexpress.wordpress.com/the-hash-express-news-2010/marijuana-prison-statistics/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8640399.stm

Just stating the facts no one seems to know