Drugs in the USA

I'm here for a week, staying in and around Philadelphia and New Jersey. Here's a couple of observations on drug-type stuff.

#1. Driving down to NJ to see friends, as I got to near their place I could see lots of little signs by the side of the suburban roads declaring the area a 'Drug-free Zone'. These areas are usually around High Schools and so it proved to be. Essentially they mean that anyone caught inside these zones carrying drugs will be assumed to be intent on dealing them to students and so on and faces massive penalties if found guilty. Interestingly there was no mention of alcohol.

Fact - the prison population in the US has just reached one person in one hundred. Mostly non-violent offenders, many for possession of drugs. The drugs problem is as bad as ever.

#2. The writers of a hit and very good US TV show, 'The Wire' which is a police, criminal justice type programme but one of the best of its kind; published a piece in 'Time' magazine decrying the continuing US war on drugs. Amongst other things they argue that the police spend most of their time on small-time drug arrests, so-much-so that murder arrest rates have halved because they go for the easy bust to keep their overall arrest rates up. They (the writers) have come up with an interesting proposition and are urging fellow citizens to consider doing the same as a way of avoiding clogging the jails up. It's this: they suggest that if called to jury service, jurors should not convict for any minor drugs offense unless violence is involved, 'No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses non-violent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens'. They go on to argue that jury nullification has long been a form of American dissent.

I present the above two observations without comment, it's not for me when visiting another country to say if these things are right or wrong. But it is interesting isn't it?