The War on Drugs, Is a Treaty Being Reached?

Recently I saw an article in the Rolling Stone about the War on Drugs coming to an end. In 2014, two states legalized marijuana, California de-felonized possession of hard drugs, and New York City ended arrests based on marijuana possession.

One great statistic from the article is that, "For the first time in 34 years, the federal inmate population is falling, down 4,800 in the past year. By 2016, a drop of 12,200 is projected – equivalent to more than six federal prisons filled to capacity". This shows that the government may have started realizing that imprisoning people for petty crimes such as minor drug possession is detrimental to the prisoner's life and taxpayer's money. On average around $30,000 is spent on every inmate in a year, to keep them in prison. That means by 2016 taxpayers will save $366,000,000. Which really shows the sheer amount of money the US spends on its prisoners, over other things, like education.

Another amazing statistic I found in the article was, "a dramatic improvement in a city[New York] where 28,000 residents were arrested for weed last year – 86 percent of them black or Hispanic – wasting nearly $75 million in taxpayer funds to adjudicate." I found this statistic extremely revealing. Not only does it show that most of the people getting arrested for possession of weed are minorities, but it also shows how much of tax payer's money was spent on arresting them. New York City has taken steps to reduce this number. In 2014, Mayor de Blasio has ended arrests based on marijuana possession.

The two statistics above really show a huge movement towards the legalization of certain drugs and less harsh punishments for possession/use of other drugs.

So what do you think, is the War on Drugs ending?