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

Talk to frank makes me angry

Was scouring the internet for treatments of cancer for my oncology module for 2013 and stumbled onto a website called "talk to frank" which is a website that supposedly "discusses" the effects of narcotics and is supposed to be there to educate young people on drugs:
its bullshit like this that makes this country ignorant about narcotics:
http://www.talktofrank.com/faq/what-long-term-damage-does-cannabis-cause

here are the truths behind the lies on that one page:

1) cannabis will only increase your likelihood of developing schizophrenia if you're genetically predisposed to it (i.e it runs in your family) other than that, it is actually proven to help protect brain cells, increase their number, and will help you forget adverse memories (such as in PTSD)

2) while yes when you're stoned you can lack motivation, this doesn't last, as soon as the effects wear off your motivation will return, and why is this? because its pure mind set, cannabis will effect you in WHATEVER WAY YOU EXPECT, if you expect to have a bad experience, you will, if you expect it to make you sleepy, it will, if you expect it to just calm you down, relax you and focus your mind, guess what? it'll do that too! Cannabis affects EVERYONE slightly differently, because everyone has a slightly different expectation of the narcotic.

3) this one makes me sick the most - CANNABIS REDUCES THE RISK OF CANCER! and PURE cannabis smoke is actually GOOD for asthma (in a joint, yes, you risk an attack (small risk) from the tobacco smoke, but how many asthmatics smoke normal cigs? my guess is a fair few (a good chunk of my mams family are asthmatic and most of them smoke at LEAST cigs) if you smoked it through a bong/vaporizer the smoke would actually REDUCE your symptoms, as the ecannabinoid system (how many of you knew that the body naturally produces cannabinoids? molecules of the same structure of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis)  is used to CONTROL INFLAMMATION!

4) the only truth on the whole page, if you're smoking cannabis in a joint, yes there is tobacco, yes tobacco IS bad for you, but the filters in your cigarettes are MUCH worse for you than the tobacco itself (every time you drag on a filter, little bits of glass fiber break off and go into your lungs, causing lacerations, which either scar, or allow more tobacco carcinogens into the lung tissue, when these carcinogens are trapped inside by the healing process, the damage they can cause increases, as the bodies immune response struggles to detect it , causing a "broken glass" appearance on chest x-rays

Not saying everyone should smoke cannabis, but those that want to, providing it doesn't effect anyone, SHOULD be allowed, if someone makes an informed choice to sit in their room surrounded by smoke filling their body with chemicals, why does anyone have a right to stop them, just because its going to take money away from government?  We, as a country, let people pump themselves full of alcohol and nicotine legally, and these are 2 of the most harmful drugs known to man, so why not let people add a little bit of goodness to their system?

Aiming to educate on the real effects of Cannabis.

And, for the record, discussing the true effects/risks/legality of cannabis when compared to bullshit government propaganda is my academic and philosophical right, I think its plain wrong that the general public are allowed to be mislead so blatantly.

If cannabis and hemp were to be legalized world over, we'd sort this planet out SO quickly (although, i'd rather just hemp become legalized if that was the only option, we'd still fix the planet, but loads of people would still be taking man made chemicals as medicine which do more harm than good)

Liam
OUT!