Drug offenders who serve jail time or traditional probation have a recidivism rate of 45%. Of those who completed ‘drug courts’ monitored treatment programs, the rate was 4%.
In April 2000, Hawaii's legislature passed a law permitting people to use marijuana as a medical treatment for AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, and to alleviate cancer chemotherapy side-effects. There are five other states in which voters have passed initiatives permitting restricted medical use of marijuana, but Hawaii is the first state to enact a law. Users will be able to grow their own marijuana, limited to six plants.
60% of federal prison inmates are drug offenders, as are 22% of state prisoners.
20% of all felony convictions are for drug trafficking; another 12% are for drug possession.
About 270,000 people are incarcerated on drug charges, up from 48,000 at the start of the ‘Drug War.’
Direct federal spending on the ‘Drug War’ is currently $17 billion per year.